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By any standard, Dr. Joe M. Cooper lived a full life.
He was an ordained Baptist preacher who pastored two churches in Mississippi, ministering to the spiritual needs of his congregation and sharing the love of Christ. He was a member of the “Greatest Generation,” helping to preserve America’s freedom by serving his country in World War II. He was a respected and beloved professor, imparting practical and experiential wisdom to his students at Mississippi College.
And the night before he died at 98 on Nov. 30, Cooper enjoyed engaging in his favorite pastime, participating in a stimulating discussion as part of a weekly book club of former students and friends he delighted in hosting – even on Zoom.
“Here’s this man who was born as a sharecropper’s son in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, and he’s sitting in front of a computer screen the night before his death, talking about Confucianism (in Huston Smith’s book, “The World’s Religions”) with people from Washington, Utah, and the local area,” said Ricky Nations, an MC alum, past-president of the Arts Council of Clinton, and member of Cooper’s book club. “He was a fine man, someone I greatly admired.
“It was an honor to be a friend of Joe’s.”
Rev. Duewayne Tullos, once a student of Cooper’s and another member of the book club, marveled at his former professor’s exceptional memory.
“Every time I had a class under him, I would sit in the same spot,” Tullos said. “Years after I graduated from MC, I joined Northside Baptist Church, where he was a member. He knew where I had sat – he remembered me from that long ago.
“When you’re a student 18 or 19 years old, you don’t imagine you’ll ever become a personal friend of one of your professors who’ll still be around when you reach your seventies. He was a critical thinker. He was humble – I don’t know of anybody who didn’t love him. So many people consider themselves to be his personal friend because he was so personable with everyone.”
Dr. John Meadors, professor and chair of English and philosophy at MC who delivered the homily at Cooper’s funeral, called him an “inspired teacher whose challenging and carefully reasoned lessons” were illustrated by his life.
“Joe was a philosopher, which means most simply that he thought hard about important things. He thought hard because the truth was important to him, and he wanted, quite literally, to live it. He carried his deepest reckonings into the crucible of his life and tested them.
“Taking cues first and foremost from Jesus, but also from the canons of Christian theology, world philosophy, literature, and the great religious traditions of humankind, Joe came to cherish individual people, real folks. Not humanity as a whole, but each individual person who made their way into his presence.”
Cooper, the youngest of nine children, was valedictorian of Charleston High School in 1943 and was immediately inducted into the U.S. Army Air Corps. He served as a radio operator/gunner in a B-24 bomber with the 15th Air Force in Italy during World War II. Returning from a mission late in the war, his plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire over northern Italy, and Cooper and the surviving crew members became prisoners of war in southern Germany.
After the war, Cooper and his new bride, Wilma E. Stinson, both earned B.A. degrees at MC. He received his Bachelor of Divinity from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and later obtained a Doctor of Theology in systematic theology from New Orleans Baptist Seminary. He served as pastor of Valden Baptist Church and Handsboro Baptist Church.
Cooper joined the MC faculty in 1958 and taught philosophy and religion. He became chair of the Department of Philosophy and served as president of the Mississippi Philosophical Association.
Meadors said Cooper was an educator of the highest order who “never shied away from difficult or controversial topics.”
“In addition to teaching a wide array of Bible and philosophy courses, Joe led senior honors seminars at Mississippi College on death and dying and took MC students abroad to study in London,” Meadors said. “There are educators, ministers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers – folk from all walks of life – who bear witness to the life-changing consequences of studying with ‘Smokin’ Joe’ Cooper.”
After a 35-year academic career, he retired as professor emeritus. He received the Department of Christian Studies Alumnus of the Year Award in 2016, and was one of only two alumni named MC’s Distinguished Professor of the Year twice – in 1979 and again in 1988.
“Joe taught all of us something about healthy aging over the last 10 years,” Meadors said, “namely that health is found in active engagement with friends. He pursued and cultivated friendships, he welcomed others into his home with warm hospitality, he stayed active in the Church and Sunday School, and in his engagement with books and ideas.”
Cooper and his wife were married for 67 years until her death in 2012. He is survived by their four children: Kay Gabbert (Craig) of Nashville, Tennessee; Joe A. Cooper of Tallahassee, Florida; Carol Cooper (Dave Ramsay) of Seattle, Washington; and Bonnie Cooper of Clinton; four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Services took place Dec. 6 at Northside Baptist Church in Clinton, with burial in the Clinton Cemetery. To view the service online, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esZQj2UbE8g. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be directed to Northside Baptist Church or the Joe Cooper Scholarship Fund of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Mississippi. Letters of remembrance are requested to be sent to the Joe Cooper Family, 1475 East Northside Drive, Clinton, MS 39056.
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