Angus R. Cooper, II, is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cooper/T. Smith Corporation, headquartered in Mobile, Alabama.
Mr. Cooper was born March 28, 1942, in Mobile, Alabama, and attended University Military School graduating in 1960. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in 1964. In 1995, he received the Achievement in Transportation Award from the University Of Alabama Culverhouse College Of Commerce.
After graduation from college, he joined Cooper Stevedoring Corporation. Under his direction, Cooper Stevedoring has grown and operates in 37 ports on the East, Gulf, and West Coast of the United States, plus operations in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. It has also expanded into services of ship docking and undocking, mooring, warehousing, barging and barge towing business. One of Cooper’s latest acquisitions is Kimberly Clark’s marine and timberlands division now renamed Cooper Marine and Timberlands, Inc.
The story of the Cooper family businesses began in the late 1800s when Henry Harrison Cooper and his two brothers emigrated from Scotland eventually settling in Baldwin County, Alabama in an area appropriately named Rosinton. They were rosin farmers securing rosin for Naval stores from the plentiful Baldwin County pine trees. Henry Cooper’s son Angus, one of fourteen children, went to work on the Mobile waterfront and began the Cooper family stevedoring tradition, and in 1905 established what eventually became Cooper/T. Smith Corporation.
Angus Cooper’s son, Ervin, joined the family’s business. He married, had two sons (Angus II and David), and went on to personally direct the firm’s expansion to ports throughout the U.S. Both sons set out on a seemingly impossible mission: to grow the business worldwide and compete internationally with the biggest maritime firms in the world.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of IBERIABANK, the Coast Guard Foundation, and Crescent Towing & Salvage Co., Inc. He is Vice President of Crimson Tide Foundation, and is a member of the Chief Executives Organization, Inc. He is Chairman of the Senior Bowl and the Mobile Arts & Sports Association, and a member of the Mobile Carnival Association, Mobile Touchdown Club, Eastern Shore Art Association and the New Orleans Business Council, and the World Presidents’ Organization. He is the Honorary Chair for the Alabama Kidney Foundation. In 1998, he received the World Trade Club Award at the United Nations in New York. In 2004 he received the Bank One Junior Achievement Award and in 2005 he was chosen as a Role Model for the Young Leadership Council. He was named “Maritime Person of the Year 2005” by the Propeller Club of New Orleans. He also received the 14th International Maritime Hall of Fame Award in 2007. In 2009 he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor.
Mr. Cooper is on the Board of Directors of the National WWII Museum, the Audubon Institute, and GulfQuest Maritime Museum.
He formerly served on the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama System, the Board of Directors of Whitney National Bank of New Orleans, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans, Director of Federal Reserve Bank, Alabama Dry Dock & Shipbuilding, Inc., Boy Scouts of America, Children’s Hospital and various other civic and social organizations. Mr. Cooper was the former co-chairman of the United States Olympic Committee – Mobile.
Mr. Cooper is an active member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairhope. He has four children, Carol Elizabeth (Lisa), Angus, 111, Scott and Claire Ellen, and nine grandchildren.
