Abstract
Charles Cooper, whome Cooper Hall is named after, was Director of the Training School at Brockport from 1911-1936. He came to Brockport from Pennsylvania, where he had attended Bucknell University.
He was a friendly and encouraging mentor to many generations of aspiring teachers in the "practice school," or what was later called the "campus school." This was a school within the college; in Cooper's time it covered the first through eighth grades. The students were children from the village who were taught by professional "teacher critics," who not only taught the children but supervised the steady flow of student teachers through their classroooms. In the 1930 Saga Yearbook that this photo comes from, there was a description of going to see Mr. Cooper:
"Then came the Day of days, when we were admitted to that Sanctum Sanctorum, Mr. Cooper’s office, for general criticism. How we secretly trembled as he slowly swung around in his chair and emitted a gruff, ‘Well, what do you want?’ But then, we found out that behind that gruffness he concealed as kindly, sympathetic and inspiring a personality as could be desired by anyone…”
