Robert Cooper

Oxford resident Robert Charles Cooper died of brain cancer Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014, at Mercy Regional Medical Center. He was 64.
Known as "Bob," he was born to Bernerd Mack and Alma Chrysella (Parks) Cooper on March 25, 1950, in Durango. The second of three children, he grew up on the family ranch in the Animas Valley.
In 1969, Mr. Cooper enlisted in the Navy. He served as a shipfitter on the destroyer U.S.S. Harold J. Ellison, including a tour in Vietnam, until his honorable discharge in 1973.
On July 17, 1970, he married Debra Stolworthy. They had two children before the marriage ended in divorce.
On Sept. 2, 1989, he married Sandy Lane in Durango. Her son, Brandon, quickly became his oldest son.
The Coopers lived in Durango until both boys were grown, when they moved to Oxford.
"There Bob's passion for animals, especially his mules, Sunny and Breezy, blossomed into a full time habit," according to his family.
Mr. Cooper was an auctioneer locally, a job he enjoyed nearly as much as his mules, his family said.
"Bob's happiness was volunteering his time and energy in the community," they said. "He would load up the wagon and long ears, go to parades, family functions, pumpkin patches and campouts, where he would harness the team, grab a young person, put them in the wagon seat next to him, give them the lines and teach them to drive his beloved team."
Mr. Cooper was the teamster for the Fiesta Days Chuckwagon Cook-off, an American Cancer Society volunteer since his first battle with cancer in 1991, a hunting camp cook, and past president of the Pine River Heritage Society and the Four Corners Draft Horse and Carriage Association. He chaired the Bayfield Heritage Day Parade.
Mr. Cooper is survived by his wife of 25 years, Sandy Cooper, of Oxford; sons Brandon Waddell of Hesperus and Kyle Cooper of Gillette, Wyoming; daughter, Dusty Moores, of Roma; brother, David Cooper, of Overton, Nevada; sister, Wanita Cooper, of Durango; 19 grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, 2014, at Pine Valley Church, 1328 County Road 501 in Bayfield. Burial will take place at Crestview Memorial Gardens, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 160 and Colorado Highway 172. A gathering will be held at the Florida Grange, 656 Colorado Highway 172, after burial.