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If it's in Dunedin, he knows about it

Gus Cooper, nearly 88, has lived and breathed this city since 1979.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY, Times Staff Writer
Published November 25, 2007

On 2/9/99, Cecil Englebert, left, and Deborah Kynes, listen as election volunteer Gus Cooper reads the final Dunedin commission election results confirming their victory at Dunedin City Hall.
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times (file)]

DUNEDIN - Gus Cooper is mostly confined to his room at Mease Manor these days, yet he still manages to see everything.

He callscity officials, civic leaders and reporters - the latter with an "I know something you don't know" tone - then fills them in on what's happening around town.

He's a Rolodex of names and dates, a trait learned during his own days as a newspaper reporter in Minnesota, he said. He remembers how the City Commission voted on issues years ago. He said he speaks to every member of the commission at least once a week.

Francis Loren "Gus" Cooper - tipster, volunteer, commissioner confidante and part-time Dunedin historian - will be 88 Friday.

"If I'm still here," he said recently.

He was born in Dodge Center, Minn., in 1919. After being picked on for having a girl's name, he re-named himself "Gus" after the town's barber when he was 5. He lived through the Great Depression, joined the U.S. Marine Corps and survived World War II, the Korean War and, in his later years, a stroke.

In 2005, he was diagnosed with cancer. In September, his doctors told him to contact a hospice.

Still, at a time in life when most people are making final arrangements, Cooper is pushing his causes. The latest: fighting a suggestion by city staff to cut nongovernmental programming on the city's television channel. That would include community events like the Little League Open and the Senior Talent Show.

"People are the government," Cooper said. "They pay the taxes, user fees."

From his Mease Manor retirement room, he's e-mailed the city manager, assistant city manager and City Commission.

That prompted an e-mail from Vice Mayor Deborah Kynes to City Manager Robert DiSpirito.

"I really do not agree with this policy because so many of these events directly benefit our citizens," she wrote DiSpirito.

Cooper also is trying to resurrect an internship program between Dunedin High School and the city's cable television channel.

Assistant City Manger Harry Gross said plans to change Ch. 15's programming are now on hold until the City Commission discusses the issue.

He also said city staff met with Dunedin High's principal recently to discuss the internship program.

"We always sit up and listen to Gus because he has an awful lot of experience and his instinct is usually good on these types of things," Gross said.

* * *

Through the phone, Internet and the city's television station, Cooper keeps tabs on everything Dunedin.

He came to the city in 1979 with his late wife, Shirley Garniss. She was an Army nurse he chased for seven years "until she caught me," he said. Her parents retired in Dunedin and the couple moved here to look after them when Cooper retired as vice president for public relations and advertising for the New York Life Insurance Co.

He plunged into the community, serving on numerous City Commission-appointed advisory committees, as director and president of the country club and as the creator and host of the bimonthly Spotlight on Dunedin segment, which airs daily on Ch. 15.

"You have a lot of people that talk and you have other people that do and do and do," Kynes said. "That has been Gus."

Earlier this month, Cooper was on the phone with Commissioner Dave Eggers, recommending three high school kids for the Youth Advisory Committee.

"He has a passion for communications," Eggers said. "He has a passion for Dunedin, he has a passion for politics. He continues to involve himself in the everyday life of Dunedin citizens, and I think it's wonderful."

Cooper has won a slew of local awards, including the Chamber of Commerce's Delightful Dunedin Award in 1990. The one thing he hasn't done is run for City Commission. Did he ever think about it?

"Heavens, no," Cooper said. "I decided if I got elected I wouldn't stay elected because I tell it like I see it."

Tamara El-Khoury can be reached at tel-khoury@sptimes.com or 727 445-4181.

[Last modified November 24, 2007, 21:02:55]