Life Stories
Graham Vaughan Cooper
Graham Vaughan Cooper (1959 BA Jurisprudence) died on 8 May 2024 aged 83.
Graham arrived at Keble in 1959 having already rowed for Eton and joined a strong cohort of oarsmen at the College encouraged by Vere Davidge. Many of these became Graham’s lifelong friends.
He rowed in Isis in 1960 and then in the Oxford eight which represented Great Britain in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. In the 1961 Boat Race Graham passed out when Oxford were ahead, a traumatic experience that haunted him for years. He later went on to row Head of the River with Keble and was in the Keble four that won the Visitors at Henley in 1962.
After Oxford he spent twenty years in the steel industry, proving himself to be a reliable and competent managing director in the UK and India. After a long fight with cancer in the 1980s he left industry and spent the rest of his working life raising money for charities, including Worcester Cathedral, Macmillan Cancer Research, educational foundations and the Order of St John.
He was a keen supporter of Keble over the years and, while both of his children chose other Oxford colleges, his daughter-in-law (Caz Bailey) also rowed for the College.
Kindly provided by Alison Cooper.