Thor Construction founder dies at 66, leaving legacy of Black entrepreneurship in Twin Cities

Richard Copeland, a beacon for minority entrepreneurs in the Twin Cities who built Thor Construction into the largest Black-owned business in Minnesota before a sharp fall three years ago, has died of cancer.

Copeland, 66, who also co-owned Copeland TrucKing, was known for his candor, high energy and a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"He was a comet," said lifelong friend and business partner Tim Hoag. "He burned bright. It is so sad."

While Copeland's friends and business colleagues lauded his hard work and eye for turning opportunities into jobs for many people, his career's rise and fall were equally spectacular. Thor Construction reached a pinnacle as the largest Black-owned business in the state before folding in 2019, leaving many bills unpaid.

Nonetheless, his work led to a ripple wealth effect in communities of color as he insisted on hiring other Black and Brown contractors, suppliers and employees. His work was captured in the 2007 PBS special "Everyday Heroes."

"He had no problem getting in front of any CEO in Minnesota and asking for work. Almost demanding it," Hoag said. "If they didn't have a diversity program, they should have one. And they should hire minority workers and contractors. He was passionate about that."

That, Hoag said, is Copeland's legacy: the message that diversifying made businesses better and their communities better, too. Hundreds of people of color were hired because of his work.

"He was the first Black kid in Wayzata, and he had to push back through some of that. But he was so open and everything was so cool that we had a good childhood growing up," said his best friend, Paul Jones, who said the Copeland house was his second home as a kid.

Copeland, who became the Wayzata High School homecoming king and a College of St. Scholastica student, started Thor Construction in 1980 after his father fired him for buying truck equipment without first getting permission. His first Thor contracts involved filling the holes Minnegasco created while doing repair work in New Hope and Osseo.

Copeland hired some friends, and in 1985, he and Hoag bought Copeland TrucKing from his father, John. The duo almost lost the company in 1990 after U.S. West hired a new manager who chose a different hauler.

"All of a sudden, 40 percent of our client base was gone," Copeland said in a 1995 interview. "We had to turn that [loss] around fast."

Armed with advice from MEDA — a Minneapolis business assistance firm for minority-owned companies — Copeland boosted fees, analyzed cash flow, won new customers and vowed to never again rely on one firm for more than 10% of sales. Newly married and expecting his first son, Leo, Copeland saw failure as an option he couldn't afford.

Thor grew to be a powerhouse, but Copeland had to fight for the growth, he told the Star Tribune. Banks declined to lend him money to cover bonding obligations, Copeland said.

Thor eventually received a "sizable loan" with warrant options from the Minneapolis venture capital firm Milestone Growth Fund. That financing helped the company grow.

Copeland praised Milestone Growth and its then-CEO Esperanza Guerrero-Anderson. "She made me the loan when the bank wouldn't," he said. "My own advisers were saying, 'Why would anybody give you a loan?' I didn't have the financial resources to go after the bigger bonding or to hire the people I needed. Esperanza believed in me."

By 1997, Thor had $6 million in revenue and scores of workers on the payroll.

By 2017, its projects spanned seven states and the company boasted 200 workers and revenue of $350 million.

In 2018, the company helped set up Minneapolis for the Super Bowl.

Copeland, who was briefly married to Minneapolis developer Roxanne Givens, was hailed as a champion of north Minneapolis, where Thor Construction built the $36 million Regional Acceleration Center (RAC).

The project signaled good jobs and an improving economy in the area. Copeland and Thor CEO Ravi Norman moved the company's headquarters into part of the building that was to be a small-business incubator with several other tenants, including MEDA.

Former Gov. Mark Dayton, city and county officials and business leaders stood with him to cheer RAC's grand opening in 2018.

Four months later, Thor's longtime lender, Sunrise Banks, shocked the city when it sued Thor and Copeland, demanding the repayment of a $3 million loan that Sunrise claimed was in default.

Thor Construction closed in April 2019. Copeland filed for personal bankruptcy and gave up his co-ownership stake of Copeland TrucKing in Fridley, saving the jobs of 90 workers there.

Eventually, Target Corp. paid off Thor's payroll obligations. Target, U.S. Bank, Old National Bank and Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) stepped in to buy the RAC building. And a deal was struck to wipe out Thor's equity stake in the project.

The financial upheaval and a rash of health problems took their toll on Copeland, who had previously beaten prostate cancer, friends said. In August, he was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer and given six months to live.

In 2021, Copeland married longtime girlfriend Cassie Block.

"He was definitely a character. Richard liked a really good laugh," Block Copeland said. "Richard was very adventurous and we liked to do things and not plan them out. Live in the moment. Those moments will be sadly missed."