Rev. Mary Gean Cope, a seventh-generation Methodist, is a retired Elder in the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Within the Annual Conference she served eleven years as Associate Director of the Conference Council on Ministry, with responsibility for youth ministry, higher education and campus ministry, Fall University, CTCYM, relationships with two districts and several boards, committees, and councils, as well as representing Central Texas at Jurisdictional, National, and General Church levels.

Subsequently, she served as Pastor at FUMC Ferris for nine and a half years, FUMC Crowley for ten years, and FUMC Clifton for seven years. In retirement she chose to live in Clifton, and remains active in the Mid-South District, the Horizon Texas Annual Conference, Central Texas Emmaus, and the community of Clifton.

After taking the retired relationship with the Conference July 1, 2022, Mary Gean did what she called her "Retirement Tour." For two years she visited a different United Methodist church beyond Bosque County each Sunday as a visitor, unless she had been called upon to fill in for a colleague.

In 2024, Mary Gean made herself available again for appointment and was delighted to go back to FUMC Ferris. She has been serving there as Pastor quarter time since

July 1, 2024, spending about half of each week working from the Parsonage in Ferris and the other half at her apartment in Clifton.

Mary Gean grew up in El Paso, Texas, where she heard God's call to ministry and began pursuing it as a child. She moved to Ft. Worth to study International Affairs at Texas Christian University and has lived in the Central Texas area ever since.

She married the late Rev. Robert M. Cope in 1971, graduated from TCU in 1972, finished her teaching credentials, and had three children while Bob served one Presbyterian and four different United Methodist churches over a nine-year span. Bob became ill, and died in 1980 while serving as Associate Pastor at the former Westcliff United Methodist Church.

Mary Gean taught at Nolan Catholic High School from 1979 through 1984, when she began working for the Central Texas Conference. She returned to TCU, and completed her Master of Divinity degree at Brite Divinity School there in 1994.

Her grown children live in Seoul, South Korea, and in Smithville and Cleburne, Texas. All four of her amazing grandchildren live in Burleson and Cleburne.