94-04-09 U.Va. Board of Visitors Names Public Service Center in Honor of Retired Professor Weldon Cooper

U.VA. BOARD OF VISITORS NAMES PUBLIC SERVICE CENTER
IN HONOR OF RETIRED PROFESSOR WELDON COOPER

     CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 9 -- The University of Virginia's
Board of Visitors today voted to name the University's Center for
Public Service in honor of Weldon Cooper, a retired government
professor and longtime University administrator known throughout
the state for his work in behalf of state and local government.
     Cooper, who was director of the Institute of Government, the
center's predecessor, served in numerous official and unofficial
capacities promoting good government between 1947 and 1973,
including serving as executive assistant to Gov. John S. Battle in
1950-51.  He also was secretary to the U.Va. Board of Visitors and
administrative assistant to President Edgar F. Shannon form 1959 to
1969.
     In renaming the center the Weldon Cooper Center for Public
Service, the board's resolution said that Cooper's "devoted service
to the University and the Commonwealth, particularly in assisting
local and municipal governments throughout Virginia, earned him the
gratitude of a generation of Governors and state and local
officials."
     "Weldon Cooper has always been known as `Mr. State- and -Local
Government.'  It is most appropriate, given all the selfless work
he performed on behalf of all Virginians, that the Center for
Public Service be named for him," said center director Carl W.
Stenberg III.
     Cooper, 87, a Texas native who lives in Charlottesville,
joined the U.Va. faculty in 1947 and was associate director of the
Bureau of Public Administration, which was later renamed the
Institute of Government.  He became director in 1956.  During his
tenure there, he helped guide numerous state commissions, including
the Governor's Commission on Legislative Redistricting in 1961 and
the Virginia Metropolitan Areas Study Commission in 1966.  In
addition to writing frequent articles shedding light on Virginia's
state and local government issues, he also helped draft or revise
a number of municipal charters, and regularly assisted and advised
governors and the General Assembly on a variety of matters.
     He also established or expanded many of the programs for which
the center that now bears his name is known, including the annual
Local Government Officials Conference and many regular publications
and studies related to government.  He continued to edit the
monthly University of Virginia News Letter on state issues until he
retired in 1973. 
     On that occasion Gov. Linwood Holton issued a special
proclamation recognizing Cooper's "untiring devotion to Virginia,
her government, and her people."  And George R. Long, executive
director of the Virginia Association of Counties, commented at the
time that "much of the progress in state and local government
during the past 25 years can be traced directly to the guiding
hands of Dr. Weldon Cooper."
                               ###
                                                    April 9, 1994

Karen A. Castle
University News Office
kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu
(804) 924-7116


[Submitted by: Karen A. Castle  (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu)
               Tue, 12 Apr 94 09:23:57 EDT]