Joe Cooper’s garden still has produce waiting to be picked.
There are some peppers and tomatoes and at least one head of broccoli that’s looking pretty good.
Tracy Clarke hopes to get to them and reap Joe’s final harvest.
Joe would want that.
JOE COOPER
Joe’s wife, Pauline, says he didn’t like turnips, so that was never on the must-plant list of the man who died in August at the age of 87, a longtime member of the Kamloops Garden Club — and someone his friends say was one of those unique individuals who left a mark on Kamloops without even trying.
The family came to the River City from England in 1969; Cooper got involved in real estate and Pauline, using her family surname of Nock, took her medical practice to the Burris Clinic.
Why Kamloops?
“Why not?” Pauline replied to laughter from Tracy, her longtime live-in caregiver who helps her cope with the realities of multiple sclerosis.
Joe went to work for the Cooper-Nicholson Century 21 office — but, along the way, became friends with then-mayor Mike Latta and started sharing his ideas with the mayor on how Kamloops could be better.
Those conversations led to Sagebrush Theatre being built, to trees being planted along Victoria Street — “when we moved here, it was so hot walking there,” Pauline said — and to the development of Tudor Village in Sahali and Elm Tree Place on First Avenue.
Friend Michael Black called Joe “the epitome of a perfect gentleman, the kind of guy anyone would want for their father.”
His memories include the work Joe did in the community but he also spoke of the regular Thursday afternoon gatherings at the Noble Pig, where Joe and some of his friends would gather to play cards.
The game was Blitz.
“You could lose up to $4.50 in an afternoon,” Michael said. “Joe would often say at the start: ‘Beer, man’s greatest invention’.
“One afternoon, there was a group of policeman sitting at a table near us and, when they’d get up to go to the washroom, they’d cover their eyes to not see the quarters on the table.”
Pat Wallace is another friend who got to know Joe when she was first elected to city council.
He was a strong advocate for projects he felt would benefit the city, she said, and made compelling presentations to city hall.
“He was a very articulate and extremely well-read man,” Wallace said. “He was extremely interested in community politics, who would be elected.”
A devoted supporter of the cultural side of the city, Joe was named a life member of the Kamloops Art Gallery and was on the board of Western Canada Theatre for years.
He loved to head to the Cineplex Odeon at Aberdeen Mall on Sunday mornings, Pauline said, when the theatre would often screen operas.
“He had an ear for music and could recognize almost anything he heard,” she said, noting it needed to come from the classical genre, rather than Top 40.
“Joe was not an idle man,” Pauline said of her husband. “He was an idea man who made friends and talked of vision.”
