George Clinton Cooper, USN Ensign

The purpose of the George C. Cooper award is to recognize an individual or group that has promoted cultural and racial diversity initiatives in Centerville and Washington Township, Ohio.

This award is named in memory of the late George C. Cooper (1916-2002), a founder of CWDC. He believed in the responsibility of helping others, using his interaction with them as an opportunity to promote judgment not by the color of one’s skin but as a human being. Mr. Cooper was a member of the “Golden Thirteen:” the first thirteen African American officers commissioned by the U.S. Navy, chronicled in Paul Stilwell’s book by the same name which gives episodes of racism that these pioneering black officers faced. Cooper had a second career as an administrator for the City of Dayton and was inducted into the Walk of Fame in 2004.