Louise & Jim Cooper, Jr. Family Fund
This fund supports the Blackwater Ministerial Association’s work aiding the needy, in memory of Louise and Jim Cooper, Jr., longtime residents of Tucker County known for their civic leadership, community service, and devotion to faith and family.
TYPE OF FUND: Designated
DATE ESTABLISHED: 1999
PURPOSE: To provide funds for the needy in memory of Louise and Jim Cooper, Jr.
DISTRIBUTION: Annual grants to the Blackwater Ministerial Association upon the recommendation of the Grants Committee and approval by the Board of Directors of TCF.
VARIANCE POWER: If, in the judgment of the TCF Board of Directors, the restrictions and conditions of the fund become unnecessary, incapable of fulfillment or inconsistent with the charitable needs of the community, the TCF Board of Directors maintains the right to modify the terms of this fund.
FUNDING: Donations made by the children of Louise and Jim Cooper, Jr.—Jim Cooper III, Carol Stark, Ida Slezak, and Susan Wingfield—initiated the fund in January 1999. Donations may be made by friends and family at any time.
BACKGROUND:
Jim Calvin Cooper, Jr. was born December 5, 1902, in Davis, WV, and graduated from Davis High School in 1920. In 1925, he opened Cooper’s Department Store in Thomas and later launched Cooper’s Insurance and a dry-cleaning business. He served on the Thomas City Council, was mayor in 1958, and represented Tucker County in the WV House of Delegates in 1939–40. A charter member of the Thomas-Davis Lions Club and longtime member of both St. John’s Lutheran and Thomas Presbyterian Churches, Mr. Cooper passed away in 1994 at the age of 91.
Louise Johnson Cooper was born February 15, 1909, in Coketon, WV. A graduate of Thomas High School and Potomac State College, she was a teacher and assisted in the family business. She was an elder of the Thomas Presbyterian Church and an active member of the Order of Eastern Star. She died in 1983 at age 74.
Jim and Louise Cooper were the parents of four children:
James Calvin Cooper III of Canaan Valley, a West Point graduate and U.S. Army retiree, who joined the family insurance business.
Carol Ann Cooper Stark of Spokane, WA, a WVU graduate and mother of four.
Ida Louise Cooper Victorson Slezak, a former superintendent of schools in California and mother of two.
Susan Cooper Wingfield of Bedford, MA, a program coordinator for computer courses at MITER Corporation and mother of two.
Their legacy of service and compassion lives on through this fund.
