Cooper, John (John H.) (1911-1993)

Dates

• Existence: 1911 - 1993

Biography

John H. Cooper, Kinkaid’s headmaster from 1951 to 1979, received a B.A. in English and both a B.A. and an M.A. in History from Yale, and did additional graduate work at the University of Wisconsin in Education. After teaching French and History at the Morgan Academy, Mr. Cooper began his administrative journey as Assistant Head at Tower Hill School in Delaware, and then became the Headmaster of Keith Country Day School in Illinois. During his tenure as Headmaster of The Kinkaid School in Houston, Texas, he was also President of SAIS, a board member of the Museum of Natural Sciences, and founding member of Houston’s Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

Mr. Cooper enriched Kinkaid and the Houston community. He upgraded Kinkaid’s athletic program in order to increase the size of the Upper School student body, selected the Memorial area school site, created the Kinkaid Endowment Fund Trust and the concept of annual giving, replaced the school’s annual garage sale with an annual auction, hired a professional theater teacher for the arts program, instituted the K-8 uniform tradition, designed a bomb shelter under the new science lab during the Cold War years, and established the popular and ongoing traditions of Interim Term, the Book Fair, the 8th grade Washington DC trip, and the EMSI Summer Institute.

Citation:

Author: Sue Green

Gender

• Male

Occupations

• Head of School -- Date: 1951 - 1979
• Parent of Alumnus/a

Places

• Montpelier (Vt.) (Place of Birth) -- Date: 1911
• Wilmington (Del.) (Residence)
• Rockford (Ill.) (Residence)
• Houston (Tex.) (Residence)
• Spring (Tex.) (Residence) -- Date: 1993

Topics

• Head of School
• Memorial Campus
• Book Fair

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records: