Larry Kopczak, a volunteer mediator at The Mediation Center of Savannah and a proud 54th Street resident, has learned a lot about human nature by helping others resolve conflict. This dedicated volunteer mediator has successfully mediated more than 500 local civil, domestic and probate cases, helping to resolve complex disputes ranging from divorces to workplace conflicts.

 

“The intensity of the interaction is what really attracted me to mediation,” he explains. “Plus, when you leave the room, you wash your hands of it. Your part is done as soon as you leave the room.”

 

Originally from upstate New York, Larry was the second of five children and the son of an IBM engineer. “I think I had more influence from my father and more left-brain orientation,” he explains. “I grew up in a rural area and had very little social interaction.”

 

A natural introvert, Larry grew up with a love of nature and enjoyed spending time building forts in the woods and fishing, later earning a degree in Electrical Engineering from SUNY-Buffalo in 1980. He worked as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard in Rockaway, New Jersey for three years before spending 17 years in marketing, including time working in the Bay Area near San Francisco as well as serving as a telecommunications products Marketing Center Manager in Tokyo, Japan and Grenoble, France before retiring to the Hudson Valley in New York state.

 

After a few years of renovating houses, Larry found himself looking for new challenges. In 2009, he moved to Garfield, Georgia in Emanuel County with his second wife, where he operated a 120-acre organic-certified farm, growing pecans and pomegranates while raising cows, chickens, guinea fowl, horses and donkeys. Not afraid of hard work, he dug 37,000 feet of irrigation trenches and planted a five-acre mixed-fruit orchard. For six years, he sold produce in Atlanta and to area farmers’ markets.

 

However, after he and his wife divorced, Larry found himself at a crossroads. “I ended up in the middle of nowhere by myself,” he recalls. “And so, I thought that perhaps if I ever wanted to form any other relationships, I should probably move someplace where there are more people.”

 

Larry ended up relocating to Savannah, where he already had a few friends, and joined Toastmasters to enhance his public speaking skills. He moved into a house on 49th Street before settling into a charming Ardsley Park stunner on 54th Street in early 2020, shortly before the pandemic. Ardsley Park’s architecture, atmosphere and layout reminded him of Old Palo Alto in California, and he quickly felt at home.

 

This DIY expert spent most of the pandemic teaching himself to read Latin and renovating his house, which was originally built in 1946. He did everything himself, from refinishing the floors and renovating the bathrooms to converting the unfinished attic into a full-blown library.
 
 “That was a good time to do it,” he says of his home renovation project. “There wasn’t a whole lot else going on.”

 

Larry discovered The Mediation Center of the Coastal Empire after he divorced his second wife, when they needed to mediate a property-related dispute in 2015. Larry’s attorney noticed his keen eye and attention to detail and suggested that he consider becoming a volunteer mediator. He signed up for training at The Mediation Center and officially began serving as a volunteer mediator in 2017.

 “I figured I should go and dive in and do as many mediations as possible as quickly as possible to develop the skill set,” he explains. “And so, the first year I did 90 mediations. Then I did 140 the next year. That got me to the point where I was quite comfortable.”
 
 Over the years, Larry has been honored with four awards from The Mediation Center, including the prestigious Mediator Award for the most cases mediated. He has completed employee mediations, resolved disputes for local residents who were recently released from prison, taught transitional parenting classes and trained local agencies in de-escalation and conflict resolution.

 

“Larry is an extremely talented mediator who enjoys mediating for the challenge and satisfaction of helping individuals from diverse social, economic and cultural backgrounds at one of the most stressful times in their lives,” explains Jill Cardenas, executive director at The Mediation Center of Coastal Georgia. “He learns something new in every mediation that he does and excels at coming into a room with people he has never met, making a connection and establishing trust quickly.”

 

Larry admits that his motivation for getting into mediation was probably different from most people. “I wanted to do some remedial work on my social skills, understand emotions better and become more comfortable walking into a room and connecting with people immediately,” he explains.
 
 Ultimately, Larry got more out of the experience than he ever expected. He encourages other Ardsley Park residents to sign on as volunteer mediators and make a positive impact. 
  
 “Mediation is a very rewarding experience,” he says with a smile. “The Mediation Center offers mediator training three times a year, in case anyone else in Ardsley Park would like to begin their own journey as a volunteer mediator.”