Peter Cooper

Peter Wayne Anthony Cooper, Sept. 29, 1945 - Aug. 27, 2015 Died peacefully at South Muskoka Memorial Hospital in Bracebridge on Aug. 27, 2015, of lung cancer in his 70th year. Born Sept. 29, 1945 Peter Wayne Anthony Cooper was the cherished son of Ed and Elizabeth (Lawlor) Cooper. Peter lived on Springbank Farm at Macaulay Centre all his life. In his early teens, the farm was known as Rocky Ridge Ranch, a popular place for young girls to take riding lessons. Peter and his cousin Patricia Ryan were trails guides, until he could escape to paid work. He loved working on the nearby Bracebridge Golf Course and was a good golfer in his day. He studied electronics at DeVry Tech and became a television/radio repairman, working at Ecclestone's in Bracebridge. Thus began his hobby of collecting music. He provided the music for hundreds of parties with his reel-to-reel tape recorder. He also loved to dance. He spent his later years attending concerts at Casino Rama, where he was much loved as a person by staff and his gang of companion gamblers. He became a geophysical technician in 1966, traveling into the wilds of Northern Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, as well as farther afield. He worked in the Attawapiskat River area searching for what is now called the Ring of Fire. His time working in the Andes, near Mendoza, Argentina, and spending Christmas in Chile overlooking the Pacific Ocean remained special to him all his life. Peter worked for Ontario Hydro prior to entering the geology field and returned to Ontario Hydro in 1971. He retired as a stockkeeper in 2000. Taking after his father, Peter was an expert forester, cutting the logs and milling them for the houses, garage, sugar shack and sheds he would build. He was a builder of beautiful Muskoka pine cupboards. He was a perfectionist. He sold and delivered firewood and Christmas trees - a family tradition - from the family farm. He was proud of the fact that he could split firewood by hand faster than what he called "awkward mechanical wood splitters." He was kept very busy with a portable sawmill in retirement and was well known around the Lake of Bays as the guy to call to take down trees. He built small outbuildings so that they would "be here long after I'm gone." Some of us note where they are in case we ever need a hurricane shelter! As well, his maple syrup (a skill he learned from his dad) was requested far and wide. He met and married Lois (Van Drunen) in 1968. They settled on Springbank Farm in 1970, building the little house and then the big house in 1973 where he lived for the rest of his life. They started a family (1974, Peter Thomas, who did not survive), and a daughter Melissa in 1975. In 2014 Peter was blessed with a grandson, Alexander, named after Peter's grandfather Alexander Cooper (Kathleen Fox) who homesteaded at Bonnie Lake moving to Springbank Farm in 1904. Alex and Peter found each other immensely amusing and loved spending time together. Muskoka is poorer for the passing of Peter Cooper who carried on the traditions of his settler family who arrived in Macaulay in 1871. His great grandfather Andrew Cooper and Janet settled on Cooper's Meadows on Sage Creek. The Coopers came to Canada in 1825 from Dunfermline, Scotland. There were many of them, settling in Quebec, then in Ontario in Perth, Middlesex County, London and Thorold. When they moved to Muskoka, cousins came and settled here, including the Barrons and the Banks. He was predeceased by his mother in 1958 and his father in 1976. He is survived by Lois, daughter Melissa (Jeff Hogg,) grandson Alex Hogg, cousin Pat Ryan, numerous Lawlor cousins of Oro Medonte, and Cooper cousins in Saskatchewan. Peter requested that donations in his memory be made to the Langford Cemetery, where he will be laid to rest, after a funeral Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Bracebridge, Sept. 1. Peter worked with the community to keep this settler cemetery alive. It is central to the residents of Stoneleigh, in Macaulay. Of if you so choose donations to Ronald McDonald House or Covenant House were his choices. Peter will be sadly missed by family, friends and all who knew him, for his wit and his love of family and helping people. R.I.P.

Visitation Details

Monday, August 31st, 2015 6:00pm - 9:00pm, Reynolds Funeral Home "Turner Chapel"

Service Information

Tuesday, September 1st, 2015 11:00am, St. Joseph's Catholic Church

Interment Details

Langford Cemtery