William W. Cooper: Innovator, Fighter, and Scholar

Abstract

W illiam Wager Cooper was born on July 23, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, where his father was a bookkeeper and later a distributor for Anheuser-Busch. Bill’s family moved to Chicago when he was three years old. His father owned a chain of gasoline stations, but lost them during the Great Depression. With his father in ill health and no family revenue, Bill left high school after his sophomore year to work at whatever jobs he could find. These included spotting pins in bowling alleys, caddying at golf courses, and even professional boxing, where his record was 58 wins, 3 losses, and 2 draws. While hitchhiking to the golf course one day, Bill met Eric L. Kohler, a principal with Arthur Andersen & Co., who became his life-long mentor. Kohler loaned him money to enroll as a non-degree student at The University of Chicago. Bill liked the academic atmosphere and took the college entrance examinations, intending to become a physical chemist. During his studies, Kohler asked him to review the mathematics used in a patent infringement suit. After Cooper found errors in the mathematics used by the plaintiff’s engineers, Andersen hired him part time during the school year and full time in the summer. This awakened Cooper’s interest in accounting, and he switched his major to economics. While at Chicago, Bill became good friends with a political science student, Herbert A. Simon. Cooper graduated Phi Beta Kappa with his A.B. in 1938.