David Booth Cooper

1933 - 2020

David Booth Cooper
May 15, 1933 - August 15, 2020
La Jolla
David Booth Cooper of La Jolla, a retired newspaper editor and a former jazz promoter in the San Diego area, died August 15, 2020, at his home in La Jolla, CA. He was 87 years old.Cooper began his newspaper career in 1953 as a summer intern at the Grand Rapids Press in Michigan. His grandfather, Edmund W. Booth, who died in 1927, had been editor of the paper and a member of the family that founded Booth Newspapers in Michigan.After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1955 with a degree in English literature and a minor in romance languages, Cooper joined the reporting staff of the Raleigh, N.C, News, and Observer. In 1956 he joined the U.S. Air Force and served until 1959 as an intelligence officer with the 64th Air Division in Newfoundland, often traveling to bases in the Arctic. He later retired from the Air Force Reserve with the rank of captain. Following his military service, he rejoined the N&O in Raleigh as a reporter, covering state politics and state government, the State Legislature, and the civil rights movement. In 1964, he joined the staff of the Winston-Salem Journal & Sentinel, serving as chief of its state capitol bureau.In 1968, he left North Carolina to join the Detroit Free Press, as the paper's City Hall bureau chief. He was assistant city editor of the Free Press from 1969 to 1971 and then became chief of the paper's Lansing bureau. In 1973, he moved to the editorial page of the Free Press as deputy editorial page editor.He moved to Akron, OH, in 1977, to become associate editor and editorial page director of the Akron Beacon Journal, a Knight Ridder paper as was the Free Press. In his 22-year career in Akron, he won numerous state and regional press awards. He also covered ten national political conventions, serving as Knight Ridder's office manager and opinion columnist at eight of them, helping to organize and support a convention staff of 100 to 120 reporters and editors. He was a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the National Conference of Editorial Writers. In the 1990s, he twice served as a juror for journalism's Pulitzer Prize.His Beacon Journal editorials and over 1,000 weekly columns covered a broad range of interests: local, state and national politics and government, the arts, jazz, writing and books, walks in the woods, fly-fishing and travel, and his grandsons, whom he adored. After his retirement in 1999, he wrote a weekly column for several years for the Beacon Journal. He often said of his newspaper career that he was fortunate to work for some of the best editors and publishers in journalism, including Jonathan Daniels, Wallace Carroll, Lee Hills, Jim Batten, John Dotson and Dale Allen. In Akron, he took part in community affairs, serving as president and Life Member of the Akron Roundtable, which brings prominent speakers to the city, president of Leadership Akron, and as a member of the acquisitions committee of the Akron Art Museum.He retired in 1999 and moved with his wife, Joanne Hutchinson, to La Jolla, CA, where he lived until his death. For 14 years, he was a mentor and volunteer at the Preuss School UCSD in La Jolla. In 2012, the school honored him with the "Spirit of Preuss Community Award" for his service.His lifelong interest in jazz found him in Akron from 1994 to 1999, hosting a weekly hour-long jazz radio program over WAPS-FM, owned by the Akron Public Schools, during which he played music from his record collection and discussed jazz and the musicians.In La Jolla, he served as president 2003-2016 of the San Diego Jazz Party, an annual three-day, non-profit jazz festival designed to keep classic, mainstream jazz alive. The parties were held at the Hilton San Diego/Del Mar in Del Mar, CA, and featured 18-21 world-renowned musicians.Cooper was born in New York in 1933, but moved with his parents to Washington, DC, soon after his birth. His father, Charles Gray Cooper, was an executive with Cooper Bessemer (later Cooper Industries). He died in La Jolla in 1979. His mother, the former Dorothy Alice Booth of Grand Rapids, died in 1949.In Washington, Cooper attended the St. Albans School, where his lifelong interest in art was formed. He graduated in 1951 from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT. From there, he went to UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and an editor of the Carolina Quarterly, the campus literary publication.He was married in 1954 to the former Frances Whinery of Grand Rapids. They divorced in 1991. They had two sons who survive him, David Jr. (Kate) of Piedmont, CA, and Charles (Maureen) of Canton, OH.He is also survived by a daughter, Melanie St. Raymond Jennings (Peter) of Wilton, CT, a step-daughter, Julia Hutchinson (Jeff Bostak) of San Martin, CA, a step-son, Jim Perry (Margery) of La Jolla and Aspen, CO, and by six grandchildren, Kendall Cooper (Kristi) of Encinitas, CA, Gray Cooper (Sarah) of Lakewood, OH, Steven Cooper of Los Angeles, CA, Daniel Cooper of New York, NY, Renee Bostak of San Martin, CA, Steven St. Raymond of New Jersey, and Katherine St. Raymond of Vermont; a great-grandson and great-granddaughter, Henry and June Frances Cooper of Lakewood, OH, and a great-granddaughter, Cameron Cooper of Encinitas. Other survivors include two nephews, Michael Whinery (Meghan) of San Marcos, CA, and Andrew Whinery of San Francisco, CA. In 1993, he married Joanne Hutchinson of La Jolla, an interior designer. Joanne was his best friend, constant companion and love of his life. They traveled to many foreign countries, including Africa, China, Russia, Europe, and on annual fly-fishing trips to Montana, a state where he directed that part of his ashes be scattered, on his beloved Missouri River. His ashes will also be buried at the Miramar National Cemetery with military honors at Miramar, CA.A private memorial service will be held later. In lieu of flowers, Dave asked that donations be made to the Preuss School UCSD or to a charity of one's choosing. Please sign the guest book online at legacy.com/obituaries/ lajollalight