Growing Up Cooper
by Lindy Cooper Wisdom
May 2024
My father, Jeff Cooper, was many things. He was a scholar, warrior, author, adventurer, teacher, lifelong student and a connoisseur of excellence in all things. He was also the father of the Modern Technique of the Pistol, a founder of IPSC, and the founding father of Gunsite, which is perhaps the foremost firearms training academy in the world.
I am the youngest of Jeff and Janelle’s three daughters and spent most of my formative years in Big Bear Lake, California. I was a girl when Dad formed the Bear Valley Gunslingers and the Southwest Combat Pistol League. I knew all the masters (Thell Reed, Elden Carl, Ray Chapman, Jack Weaver, John Plahn) as well as Bruce Nelson and John Bianchi and Al Nichols and Hugh Carpenter and many, many more who came up to Big Bear to participate in what was a form of practical university for learning what worked in the realm of defensive pistolcraft.
I took both my father’s pistol class and his rifle class and I was privileged to travel quite a bit with both my parents when the opportunities arose. I was lucky to share my first hunt with my parents in Montana, and later hunted in Africa with them several times. I went to many SHOT shows and NRA conventions with them as well.
Over the years, I have often been asked about my parents and my upbringing and the basic question is always, “What was it like to have Jeff Cooper as your father?” So, let me share some memories with you.
1. What was Jeff Cooper like as a father?
Well, since I knew no other, I thought he was like everyone else’s father for most of my formative years. I thought he was wonderful. He knew the answer to every question I ever asked. On the rare occasions when he did not, he would direct me to our set of Compton’s Encyclopedia, or to some reference book in his extensive library, and the answer would be there.
He was fun. He took us hiking and shooting and on road trips. He was full of outdoor lore. He had a sense of the dramatic. As a family, we would get up in the dark and hike to Castle Rock to watch the sunrise while Dad read to us from the Bible about the resurrection. Even though he had three daughters and was old-fashioned in his opinions of the different roles of ladies and gentlemen, he made sure we knew how to change a tire.
2. Was he strict?
I suppose he was in that what he and Mom said was law. I did not rebel. I never felt the inclination to rebel. He always had good reasons for his decisions about what we could and could not do, but if it came down to “Because I said so!”, there was no argument.
3. Was it intimidating for boys to ask you out on a date?
I suppose it was to a degree, but I don’t think Dad was perceived as a tyrant or a threat. He was a serious man and he was a rather large and imposing figure and he was visibly present in our lives and obviously in charge. But teenaged boys are not particularly intuitive or aware of others as a rule, so I do not remember hearing of any boy who failed to ask any of us out because of being intimidated by my father.
4. Did you ever get in serious trouble with your father?
Yes. The most serious discipline I ever received from him was for talking back to my mother. Punishment was swift and sure and I never did it again.
5. Did your father insist that his daughters learn to shoot?
Only in a very informal way. He thought it was a useful skill and he took us out plinking at cans with a .22, but he never pushed us into anything. My sister Parry was a very good rifle shot when we were in high school, but I never fired a shot through a rifle in those days. I think she showed an interest and he welcomed and encouraged that.
In the first years at Gunsite, I took the introductory pistol class because I was working as the student coordinator and thought I should know what I was talking about. I did not take Dad’s rifle class until I was 44 years old because I had been on a hunting trip with him to Africa and caught the bug. He was proud of each of us when we shot well, but he did not pressure us.
6. What is the most important lesson you learned from your father?
So many come to mind that it is difficult to single one out, but I would say that his advice on living a worthy life stand out. He said the goals of a everyone should be thus:
a) to understand the problem.
b) to pull your weight.
c) to appreciate.
Understanding the problem entails using your brain and the knowledge you gain as you live your life to figure out what is good and what is not and work toward solutions for perpetuating what is good. Pulling your weight is an admonition to be part of the solution. Appreciating all the good that exists to your fullest capacity enriches your life.
My parents were raised with Christian ethics and the moral traditions of Western civilization and they inculcated within us the same. They believed in the sanctity of the family and the importance of raising good citizens. To this end, the dinner table was sacrosanct. We ate together at almost every meal. Good manners were taught and insisted upon. There was only one conversation at a time and everyone listened, even if it was the youngest one at the table who had the floor. Events and ideas were analyzed and judged and commented upon. It is no wonder that my sisters and I share common beliefs to this day about right and wrong, good and evil, what it to be done and what is not be done.
When I left for college, my father told me that he and Mom had done all they could to teach me what they thought I should know. He said I would never again live under the same roof with them in the same way I had. He told me that they had complete faith in me and my judgement. And, he told me that they had my back no matter what I did from then on.
That was a formidable speech for me to hear at age 18. It took me aback. It made me realize that I needed to step up, grow up and “do the right thing”. It was intimidating. It was frightening and freeing at the same time. It was empowering. It asked of me just a bit more than I thought I was capable of doing. That was my Dad.
Note: To perpetuate my Dad’s teachings, the Cooper family formed The Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation, a 501 c (3).
