McCombs TODAY

By Jamey Smith

If you have the good fortune to meet William W. Cooper, a true gentleman if ever there was one, “prizefighter” is probably not the first word that will come to mind. Yet that word and many more — prodigious author, innovator, philanthropist — apply to this professor emeritus in the McCombs School of Business. Well into his 90s, Cooper still comes to campus nearly every day. His ongoing research demands it, he’ll tell you from his desk, encircled by books and manuscripts. There’s still so much to do.

About that prizefighting: Cooper boxed professionally for five years and it led, if not exactly directly, to a prizewinning life in academia. He was college-age during his time in the ring but had never finished high school.

“This was Chicago during the Depression and I couldn’t get any work,” he says. “Everyone would ask me if I had a high school diploma, and that ended the interview.”

Hitchhiking one day, he was given a lift by a man who turned out to be a renowned accountant and a partner at Arthur Andersen.

“I had heard about psychology in boxing and so I was reading this book on psychology. But I had got the wrong kind of book; it was on physiological psychology and it was all about neurons and dendrites. The subject fascinated me though, and I was talking all about it to this man, so much in fact that soon he too was fascinated.”

Read more about Professor Cooper on the Campaign for Texas Web site.