Mississippi State University lost a member of its staff this month when Nathaniel Pope, who worked as a mason within facilities management, died Sept. 21. 
Pope, 52, would have been with MSU for two years this November. Marvell Howard, Pope’s supervisor at the Physical Plant, said Pope was constantly upbeat and in a good mood. 
“I guess you could say he had a bubbly personality,” Howard said. “He was a great guy.”
Howard said people often would come into work with a bad mood, but after spending a day on the job with Pope would leave with their spirits uplifted.
“It didn’t matter what was going wrong with your day,” Howard said. “If you went out in the field with Nathaniel he would say or do something on the job that would make you laugh and get you going again.” 
Pope was a mason, who worked with bricks and plaster to mend the buildings across campus. Howard said he worked closely with Dallas Stephens, whose job is to maintain building exteriors. Howard said Pope’s and Stephen’s relationship extended outside of work hours, and that the two were more like brothers than co-workers.
Stephens recalled one of the first times he worked with Pope was during a repair job on a portion of the Humphrey Coliseum outer wall. Stephens said the job required the use of a lift to access the damaged area and Pope was scared of heights.
“He was terrified. He wanted to quit. He said, ‘I may have to just go back to the house’,” Stephens said. “I was the one who was driving the lift.”
Stephens said once he finally convinced Pope to get into the bucket and they made the repair, instead of lowering Pope back down to the ground he first lifted him up the full 85 feet of the lift – well above the top of the coliseum. 
“After that day he never had a problem with heights again,” Stephens said.
Stephens said he and Pope worked closely together for a year after that day.
“I thought the world of him,” Stephens said. “Everyone should get the chance to work with a guy like him. For a year, not just a day.”
Pope was not married, but is survived by his son and his brother Rodney Pope. 
“He was real witty,” Rodney Pope said. “Always humorous.”
Rodney Pope said his brother cared deeply about his family, and devoted a lot of his time not only to his son but also two his two twin nieces, who he ‘loved as much as his own.’
“Those girls would get off the school bus and he would be sitting right there waiting for them to get home,” Rodney Pope said.
Pope’s funeral was held Monday at New Prairie Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Starkville officiated by Reverend Sam Bonner and was laid to rest in the church’s cemetery. 
“He will be truly missed,” Howard said. “Eventually his position will be filled but he left a hole in everyone’s heart that he came in contact with. We will never forget him.”