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City Real Passion of 'Mr. Dunedin'

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Dunedin resident Gus Cooper checks out photos stored on his computer. Photos on the computer include those of celebrities Cooper met through his former work as vice president of public relations for New York Life Insurance and long involvement in Dunedin civic affairs.

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By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: November 24, 2007

F. L. "Gus" Cooper patiently answers questions about his contacts with celebrities, including former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, President Richard Nixon, and Prescott Bush Jr., uncle of President George W. Bush.

Humphrey, known in the political world as the "Happy Warrior," was a lively political science lecturer at a class Cooper took in 1938 as a student at the University of Minnesota.

Nixon discussed his family with Cooper at a dinner with corporation executives and remembered Cooper by name when they met a year later.

Prescott Bush was the quiet one of the Bush family. Bush and Cooper worked together as chairs of the Republican party in their Connecticut cities.

But at every chance he gets, Cooper turns the conversation back to his work in Dunedin.
"That's my real passion," he says. "I worked harder for nothing than I did for a pretty good salary in New York."

Worked for New York Life

That salary came from his job as vice president of public relations and advertising at New York Life Insurance Company in New York, from which he retired in 1980. He was the first employee of the company's newly established public relations department. When he retired 35 years later, the department had a staff of 79.

Upon his retirement, Cooper, a golfer, headed for Dunedin, where he had visited in-laws during vacations. The city's warm climate allowed him to tee off all year.

He had applied for membership in the Dunedin Country Club more than two years before and was accepted the day he retired.

Never one to sit idle, he became a member of the club's board of directors the year he moved to Dunedin and three years later he was its president.

During those years, the club was trying to get younger members. At 60, Cooper was considered a young member. He is now a month short of 88.

Golfed 4 times a week
At one time, Cooper played golf four times a week. But even that was not enough to satisfy his energy.

After all, he was from a family of doers. His dad worked until he was 75, and the public library in the Cooper hometown of Waseca, Minn., southwest of Minneapolis, was named after his mom, who worked 20 years to get it.

"My parents taught me how to work hard and how to be articulate," he notes.

He began his involvement in Dunedin civic affairs in 1983. "I walked into City Hall. I said: 'I have communications skills. Have you got anything for me to do?' "

Did they ever.

In another example of the good timing Cooper says has marked his life, he volunteered at the same time city officials were starting another television program to supplement the broadcast of commission meetings.

The mission, he said, was to teach people how government works.

TV producer, host

Cooper became the volunteer creator, producer and host of "Focus on Dunedin," a 30-minute weekly cable TV show, until 1991. In eight years Cooper produced more than 400 shows informing the public about aspects of city government.

The gig ended in 1991 because of a conflict in philosophies with a city official.
Cooper stuck around as an occasional host for his program's successor, "Spotlight on Dunedin."

In honor of his work of bringing city news to the community, the city's television studio in which "Spotlight on Dunedin" still is filmed was named for him when Dunedin began operating its own government access channel in 2003.

"That's what my program I started in 1983 gave birth to," he says.

Commissioner Deborah Kynes calls the studio Cooper's "crowning achievement."
Other organizations have taken advantage of Cooper's communications skills. He has edited newsletters for the Dunedin Historical Society, the Rotary Club of Dunedin and the country club.

Chaired PRAC

Cooper was also one of the original members of the city's Public Relations Advisory Committee when it was founded in 1982. He became its chair in 1983.

Cooper has had his hand in numerous other city groups, including the Capital Improvements Advisory Committee, Marina Advisory Board and Comprehensive Plan Evaluation and Monitoring Committee.

But he never ran for office. "I don't think I would be a good officeholder because I tell it like I see it," he says.

Another of his Dunedin projects is his work with Mease Manor, the nine-story, 500-unit retirement community.

As chair of the board for almost 10 years, Cooper took the lead in getting assisted living and skilled care nursing facilities there.

He lives there today. His wife Shirley passed away in 2004.

Two children

He has two children, son Donald, who lives in Chandler, Ariz., and daughter Lynne Lichtermann, Lakeland, Tenn.

His apartment is adorned with mementos from a full life.

The Meritorious Service Award given to him by the Insurance and Financial Communicators Association hangs on a wall. In 1997, the organization honored him further by changing the name of the recognition to the Gus Cooper Meritorious Service Award.

A caricature of Cooper sporting some Cooper favorites, including running gear, a bottle of Dewar's scotch and insignia representing his service as captain in the Marines during World War II and the Korean War was given to him by representatives of Time-Life magazines with whom he worked during his advertising career.

But in spite of all the awards and honors, his biggest pleasure is having people ask his perspective on projects in Dunedin.

"That happens pretty regularly," he says.

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