Kent Cooper (March 22, 1880 – January 31, 1965) served with the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...

(AP) for 41 years, last as executive director.

Background

Kent Cooper was born on March 22, 1880, in

Columbus, Indiana Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. The population was 50,474 at the 2020 census. The relatively small city has provided a unique place for noted Modern architecture and public art, commissio ...

; his father was Democratic U.S. Congressman George W. Cooper.

Career

His father's early death led Cooper to turn his after-school job as reporter for a local newspaper into a full-time job. He became a reporter for the ''Indianapolis Press'' newspaper. He joined the Scripps-McRae Press Association (later

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...

), established his own news agency, and then returned to Scripps-McRae in a buy-out. In 1910, Melville Stone, editor of the Associated Press, hired him as traveling inspector. In 1912, he was promoted to chief of traffic. In 1920, he was promoted to assistant general manager. In 1920, he became general manager. In the late 1920s, Cooper hired AP's first class of women reporters, including Marguerite Young, who later, as Washington bureau chief for the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

'', would introduce Soviet spy

Hede Massing Hede Tune Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" (also "Hede Eisler," "Hede Gumperz," and "Redhead") (6 January 1900 – 8 March 1981), was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United Sta ...

to American diplomat Noel Field. Innovations introduced under his stewardship include use of the first high-speed telegraph printing machines, use of

teletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...

(instead of

Morse Code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one ...

), and introduction of a photograph wire service (by 1935, known as World Wide Photos). By 1929, he had also opened bureaus in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

. During his 41 years with AP, Cooper's positions included general manager (1925–1943) and finally executive director.

Personal and death

In 1920, Cooper married Marian Rothwell; they divorced in 1940. On January 31, 1965, he died in

West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. The populati ...

. He is buried in

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York, is the final resting place of numerous famous figures, including Washington Irving, whose 1820 short story " The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is set in the adjacent burying ground at the Old Dutch ...

Sleepy Hollow, New York Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is located on the east bank of the Hudson River, about north of New York City, and is served by the ...

Legacy

Cooper Glacier in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

is named for him.

Awards

In 1941, Cooper received an honorary degree from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

Works

Cooper coined the term "the right to know" with publication of his book ''The Right to Know'' (1956). Books: * ''Barriers Down'' (1942) * '' Anna Zenger, Mother of Freedom'' (1946) * ''The Minnesota Strip'' (1949) * ''The Right to Know'' (1956) * ''Kent Cooper and the Associated Press: An Autobiography'' (New York: Random House, 1958) Articles: * "The Future of the AP" (December 1943)

References

External links

* 1880 births 1965 deaths American male journalists Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Associated Press people {{US-journalist-19thC-stub