A Tribute to Dr. Emerson A. Cooper

A Tribute to Dr. Emerson A. Cooper January 15, 1924- August 14, 2012 Master Teacher and Spiritual Mentor

Dr. Emerson A. Cooper entered this world on January 15, 1924. He lived a life dedicated and committed to the Adventist Higher Education (AHE) system and Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) students. His service to Christian higher education spanned

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nearly five decades. He sojourned on earth for nearly nine decades, and a significant portion of his journey was spent helping hundreds of young people realize their dreams in medicine and science. On August 14, 2012, Dr. Cooper’s purposed-filled life expired with the belief that “…though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” He was a spirit-filled Christian, a master teacher, a servant of God, and an analytical thinker. He was a dynamic father figure, a friend, and a scholar. Before Dr. Cooper’s demise, his family collaborated with Oakwood University to celebrate his many accomplishments, and to honor his incredible contributions to the University. Many of his colleagues and friends attended that celebration in January 2012, and there was considerable discussion about his middle initial. His middle initial was enshrouded in secrecy for his entire professional life, and still is today. Those who know the significance of his middle initial, “A,” have honored his desire and his family’s desire not to divulged the secret of his middle name. I will say that the “A” has a rich history, and was a part of the nomenclature of some very influential historical characters, but I will also honor the family’s request to keep the “A” a secret.

Dr. Cooper with his lovely wife, Marjorie and their three marvelous children, Roslyn, Margo, and Stephen

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After four years following Dr. Cooper’s demise, I decided to write a few words about this spirit-filled man, extraordinary teacher, and unique friend. Dr. Cooper, a deeply spiritual man, realized that he was slowly losing his eyesight; therefore, he committed to memory as many scriptural passages as possible before going totally blind. He delighted in quoting verbatim phrases written in the King James Version of the Bible for spiritual guidance, making critical decisions, and encouraging others.

I remember when I first met Dr. Cooper. Gertrude and Lawrence Hudnall, my spiritual parents, took time from their very busy schedules to drive me from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Huntsville, Alabama. What made this drive particularly interesting is that it was during the racially volatile and sensitive early sixties. This was particularly difficult, because the Hudnalls, a Caucasian couple, drove their vehicle almost 900 miles with a black teenager in the rear seat. The trip took two days, and we had an overnight stay somewhere in Virginia. You can imagine the difficulty during the sixties of a white couple traveling with a black teenager, and trying to find housing that would accommodate an overnight stay with a black teenager. They found a boarding house that would allow a black boy to stay in a back room. Finally, we arrived in Huntsville, Alabama at Oakwood College, and, after the Hundnalls helped me acclimate to my new environment, they headed back to New Jersey, and I was left in the Deep South at a historically black college without family or friends. It didn’t take long to make wonderful new friends including Dr. Emerson Cooper. I wanted to major in the sciences, so I asked someone for the directions to Dr. Cooper’s home. In those days, he lived on the College Campus. He graciously welcomed me into his home, introduced me to his wife, the former Marjorie Stephens, and, at that time, their two children, Roslyn (now Roslyn Fields, a nurse) and Stephen (who later became a medical practitioner). At that time, Marjorie was pregnant with Margo, now Margo Bagley (an internationally known patent lawyer and law professor at the University of Virginia and Emory University). I told him that I wanted to major in Chemistry and minor in religion.

He smiled, and told me that I would be taking, at least, one or two religion courses each year. At that time, the college was on the quarter system. Also, he advised me to reevaluate my options and think about minoring in mathematics. He was so nurturing, and it was clear that he was full of wisdom. Following my visit to Dr. Cooer’s house, I chose chemistry as a major and mathematics as a minor, and the rest is history.

God selects extraordinary individuals to accomplish extraordinary tasks during extraordinary times. This was true of Dr. Cooper. His work at Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) was extraordinary. He single handedly built the Chemistry Department at the College. He was the only chemistry professor for years. He was the only person who taught chemistry at the College. He was brilliant, and he taught every course that led to a baccalaureate degree (general chemistry, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, organic chemistry, biochemistry, nuclear Chemistry, and physical chemistry) with

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efficiency and effectiveness! You have no idea how difficult that was? Very few, if any, single individual can teach every undergraduate chemistry course with confidence. But he did it! His teaching methodologies were contagious, and he taught me to do the same thing.

Dr. Cooper became my mentor, father figure, and friend. He was an individual with a beautiful, organized, and extraordinary mind. In addition to teaching all the chemistry courses at Oakwood, he also held various administrative positions during his tenure at the College. At one point, he was the Acting President. He was instrumental in helping me make a decision to go to graduate school. I felt sufficiently confident to teach most undergraduate chemistry courses with the same diligence and enthusiasm as Dr. Emerson Cooper; however, I could never do it as effectively as my mentor and friend. He had the superior mind and the superior intellect!

I took every course he taught, and as I review my own life, I cannot think of any other teacher who has had more impact on me than Dr. Emerson Cooper. I remember the last chemistry course I took from him. It was biochemistry. He walked into the classroom, handed us the traditional blue examination booklets. He went to the blackboard, and he wrote‌�tell me everything you know about what occurs biochemically when food enters the mouth, undergoes digestion, and the end-products are produced.� Essentially, Dr. Cooper asked us to tell him everything we knew about carbohydrate metabolism, lipid metabolism, protein metabolism, and their interconnectivity. What a great question! We filled the blue examination booklets, because we wrote and wrote and wrote. He had given us a lot of information about biochemistry and, basically, we used the metabolic pathways and chemical formulas to answer the question. I truly enjoyed his teaching and his mentoring more than any other course of study during my undergraduate years at the Oaks.

I worked for Dr. Cooper for the entire four years of my undergraduate studies. I admired him so much doing the years I spent with him that I was able to perfectly duplicate his unique signature. Needless to say that paid off in many situations. He would occasionally allow me to sign certain documents for him when he was away from the office, and I took every opportunity to write his signature in a way that was difficult for others to distinguish my forgery from his actual signature.

I wanted to walk in his footsteps, and I wanted to be just like him! He became my father away from home.

Dr. Cooper was a leader in the science community, a leader among Adventist scientists, and an outstanding administrator. He received several offers to teach in other AHE institutions, but he chose to stay at Oakwood College. However, he spent summers and sabbaticals at Oakridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, the University of Wisconsin, and Kentucky State University.

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He frequently talked about how God ordered his steps, and he focused on God being first in his life, because he realized that God first loved him. Dr. Cooper’s influence on my life was so positive that he, second to God, ordered my steps. He ordered my academic steps as well as my career steps. His knowledge, counsel, and advice triggered a career for me that resulted in a deep appreciation and love for chemistry education.

Dr. Emerson Cooper was one of those unique individuals God selects for a very special purpose. God’s purpose for Dr. Cooper was to encourage him to build an academic infrastructure at Oakwood College that would train scientists, engineers, educators, technicians, ministers, and trained medical practitioners to represent God in a godless world, to contribute to the body of knowledge in their disciples, to extend a helping hand where helping hands were needed, to share their expertise with others, and to spread the message of a crucified, resurrected, and soon to return Savior.

Dr. Emerson Cooper was a deeply spiritual man and an intellectual giant within the Adventist community. He contributed to the body of knowledge in mainstream chemistry as well as philosophical issues associated with Intelligent Design. His books have helped Christians understand God as the creator of an ever-evolving Universe, and he understood cosmology in a way that marveled many. To him the concept of the big bang theory was no real mystery. David explained it in Psalm 18:15 where he says, “…the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.”

Consequently, it was not an issue with Dr. Cooper that the infinite universe could spring from a singularity, because His voice created the singularity within nanoseconds where the infinitesimal became the infinite. What a magnificent mind Dr. Cooper had, and I am proud to have been trained by him, and to have been accepted as part of his family.

Dr. Emerson Cooper was a “repairer of the breech.” He was a man of all seasons. He was an intellectual giant. He was the dean of Adventist Black scientists. He was our President. He was my father figure, and the architect and builder of my career. But most of all, he was a man of God. Therefore, it is with great admiration and pleasure that I write this tribute in memory of an extraordinary personality- truly a man for all seasons. He was a dedicated man of God, a deeply committed family man, a chemist, a cosmologist, a beautiful mind, and a physicist. In his final years of his life, he became greatly interested in physics. He even submitted a scientific paper on the temperature of the early universe. In my opinion, he is the greatest intellectual and spiritual counselor to have graced the academic halls of Oakwood College. I published an electronic book titled “Organic Chemistry, Bridging the Gap.” I dedicated this book to Dr. Emerson A. Cooper, and its flyleaf reads, “This book is dedicated to Dr. Emerson A. Cooper, my friend, mentor, and locus parentis. He was my academic counselor, inspirational consultant, and best of all, a caring and nurturing undergraduate instructor.”

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Dr. Emerson A. Cooper never took the credit for himself…he attributed all of his accomplishment to the glory of God. I can imagine this deeply spiritual man saying, “To God be the glory, great things he hath done! So loved he the world that he gave us is Son, who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the life gate that all may go in.”

“Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice! O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done!”

Dr. Emerson A. Cooper is now peacefully waiting for the glorious appearance of our Lord and Savior. My prayer is that God will continue to bless his wonderful family, and I am thankful to have been blessed by his beautiful mind. I write these words in memory of a legacy and, may all the glory heaped upon Dr. Emerson A. Cooper, an incredible individual, belong to our Heavenly Father who molded him for unselfish service to the Church and to the world.

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