Vincentian Values Learned at St. John’s Guided Veteran Alumnus in Wartime

When Mr. Cooper deployed to Vietnam as a member of the 199th Infantry Brigade (Light), he brought with him the Vincentian values he absorbed as a student at St. John’s Preparatory School in Brooklyn, NY, and then at St. John’s University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education.

“The military trained us to cope, to tough it out, to get the job done,” said Mr. Cooper. “But the  spiritual values I learned from the Vincentian priests at St. John’s enabled me to keep my moral compass while dealing with the horrors of war.”

For Mr. Cooper, the oldest of nine children who grew up in St. Aidan’s Parish in Williston Park, NY, those horrors included being wounded in June 1967 while leading an ambush patrol that erupted into a firefight. Mr. Cooper, who served as a sergeant, was subsequently awarded an Army Commendation Medal and a Purple Heart.

“My greatest accomplishment was that not one man under my command was killed or wounded, except for me,” said Mr. Cooper.

He said his wartime experiences made him “tired of destroying people and things,” so three weeks after he returned home from the army, he began working as a caseworker for the New York City Department of Social Services. Mr. Cooper was assigned to a rehabilitation unit specializing in assisting people who struggled with drug and alcohol addictions.

In 1972, he entered Fordham University’s School of Social Services, graduating with a Master of Social Work degree in 1974. Mr. Cooper, who raised three children with his wife, Ellen Schneider-Cooper ’68P, ’97GP, continued to work for the city in its Senior Center program. He retired in December 2000 as Director of the Casa Vll Medicaid Home Care Office in Coney Island, NY.

“One must consider this kind of work as a life mission,” Mr. Cooper said. “The Vincentians taught us that all people are special and deserve to be valued and treated with respect. To love and be charitable are essential qualities to have any kind of success in life—and this was stressed at St. John’s University.”

It was a foregone conclusion that he would attend St. John’s, according to Mr. Cooper. “My parents expected me to go to St. John’s,” he said, explaining that his father graduated from the “old St. John’s College” on Willoughby and Lewis avenues, in Brooklyn, NY. “St. John’s was where I was raised to go for my college degree.”

The Cooper legacy continued within his own household. Ellen Schneider-Cooper earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree, both in Pharmacology. Also laying claim to St. John’s as his alma mater is Mr. Cooper’s eldest son, Matthew T. Cooper, Esq. ’91C, ’96G, ’02L.

“We are a St. John’s family,” said Mr. Cooper.