Vale Mrs Patricia Cooper OAM

14 August 1928 - 18 November 2015

My first meeting with Patricia Cooper was on a rainy day in April 2012.  She drove herself to our lunch meeting at UC. She wore a very stylish David Lawrence dress, well complimented by rather trendy shoes. Patricia was 83 and still on permanent staff at North Ainslie Primary school. By this stage, they had named a building after her. A few years later, we named a building after her too.

At UC, we often reflect that the pioneers involved with the creation of the CCAE are part of the fabric of modern-day UC. If this is the case, Patricia Cooper wove a lovely tapestry. A two-time alumna with a Bachelor and Masters in Education; Patricia was in the first intake of Education students in 1971, inspired to enrol when she heard Ron Traill and Stewart Houston give a speech at a local Canberra school about a pioneering new institution for lifelong learning – the CCAE.  

Patricia was 40 years old at the time. She had five children, the youngest 13. When she applied for the course at the CCAE, there wasn't an option to study part time – so she enrolled full time and then told her husband. He was wonderfully supportive.

Some people thought what she was doing was quite outrageous, but Patricia regarded her study as her second career, the first being a mother; steering her children through the many challenges of school and life.

Patricia made an insurmountable contribution to the CCAE and later UC. As a postgraduate student, she was on five committees – all on a voluntary basis, including the Council as elected postgraduate student representative for nine years. She chaired the Convocation Committee, where she started the Burton Revels and established the Canberra International Film Festival – a fundraiser for UC which eventually became the internationally recognised festival it is today. Patricia was also involved as a member of the Student Welfare Committee, and the Board of International House. She lobbied Council to have a piano installed in the student accommodation to enrich the experience of the students who lived there. No doubt it did.

In 2014, the University named the new student accommodation building "Cooper Lodge" in honour of Patricia Cooper. She was thrilled and humbled. Her one request was that the University provide a piano for the students to enjoy. We did.

To Patricia's children and grandchildren, many of whom are alumni of UC, we extend our greatest sympathies on the loss of your beautiful mother and grandmother.

I never told Pat, but after our meeting I secretly tried on the great dress she wore, in David Lawrence. I couldn't carry it off the way she did.

Vale Patricia Cooper, it was an absolute pleasure to have known you.

Inga Davis
Former Director, Advancement, Marketing & Communications