John Richard (Dick) Cooper, Jr. |
| Posted 2016-09-19 by Judy Wight Branson |
| The Daily Courier, Prescott, Arizona Sunday, September 18, 2016 John R. Cooper, Sr., 85, Prescott’s historically elected First African/ American City Councilman (1997-1999) and Mayor Pro Tempore (1999-2001) passed away on August 4, 2016 at Good Samaritan Marley House in Prescott of complications from a rare, Cortico Basal Syndrone, brain disorder (PSP). “Dick” as he was best known was born October 14, 1930 in Wyoming, Ohio the third of five children, to Geneva and William Cooper. He is survived by his wife of sixty-one years, Lula, daughters Alicia Assefa, El Cerrito, California, Ellen and Lynn Cooper of Wilmington, Delaware and son, John R. Cooper, Jr. of Marysville, Ohio, six grandchildren, Jordan Cooper, Alexander Brown, Tatiana Assefa, Altagracia, Paloma, Alexis and Makenzie Cooper, a brother, Stewart K. Cooper and family of Decatur, Georgia and sister, Barbara Cooper Hodge and family of Wyoming, Ohio and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by step sister, Mary Frances Keeter of Prescott and Tucson, sister, Alice Cooper Thurman of Cincinnati, Ohio, step brother, James Laine of Winchester, Kentucky and brother, William K. Cooper of Baltimore, Maryland and Tucson, Arizona. Educated in Wyoming, Ohio Public Schools, he was graduated from high school in 1948, a National Merit Scholar, president of his senior class, Band clarinetist and member of the “Wyoming Cowboys” football team. He attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut on a four year academic scholarship; received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1952 and was made a member of Yale’s Alpha XI Chapter of the Phi Lampbda Upsilon Honorary Chemistry Society. Dick and Lula married in 1954 two years after he entered Graduate School at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. At UC he was a Proctor and Gamble Fellow and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1956. The Cooper Family of three then, moved to Wilmington, Delaware where Dick worked thirty-five years employed by the E. I. DuPont Company. He had seventeen patents and retired as Director of Environmental Affairs. In 1992, Dick moved to Prescott and as a volunteer, chaired the Boards of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), the ADULT CENTER and the PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL. He helped raise funding for the NATURE CENTER and the Adult Center. As City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tempore he worked with Prescott’s Fire Department, helped solve Citizens’ concerns, especially the Sandretto Hills drainage problem, represented Prescott at the “Sister Cities” activities in Caborca, Mexico and served as a member of NACOG (Northern Arizona Council of Governments) Board. When he ran for Mayor Dick’s slogan was “He Puts People First”. A Memorial for Prescott’s “Dick Cooper” will be held Friday, September 23, 2016 at the The Adult Center of Prescott, 1280 Rosser Street, Prescott from 12-2 p.m. Information provided by survivors. |
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