Bob Cooper – Neighbor of the Week

Bob Cooper – Albemarle County

Tell us about your volunteer activities.
I do a variety of clerical jobs to support the volunteer office at JABA. I also assist a second grade teacher at Greer Elementary School in Albemarle. I let it be known to all within hearing distance that I will assist all in need with plumbing, carpentry, electrical and automotive tasks.

What inspires you to volunteer?
I feel inwardly that I have an obligation to leave everyone and every condition better than I found them.

If your volunteer work could make one long-lasting change, what would you want it be?
I hope that my helping people and good causes will, by example, inspire others to do the same to the extent that each of us will be our brother’s (sister’s) keeper.

What is a little-known fact about you?
My outlook on life was largely influenced as the oldest of seven children raised during the Great Depression in the 1930‘s. I witnessed sharing by those who could least afford it.

What brought you to Charlottesville/Albemarle County?
I was an engineer working for Sylvania Electric Company in Williamsville, NY (near Buffalo) in 1965 . As a Project Engineer I was in contact with Ovenaire located on Forrest St. in Charlottesville, VA. The owners of Ovenaire offered me the position of Manager of Engineering. I accepted, moved my family to Charlottesville and have remained here for the past 50 years. I feel so fortunate that I was here when my retirement commenced in 1991 while many other folks go through appreciable toil and expense to retire here.