Former Port St. Lucie City Manager Don Cooper dead at 69

PORT ST. LUCIE — Former City Manager Don Cooper, who steered the city from a community of 56,000 to one of the fastest-growing in the country, died Monday. He was 69.

“We knew Don as a loving and caring husband, father and grandfather,” City Manager Russ Blackburn wrote in a memo to the City Council announcing Cooper’s death.

“During his tenure with the city, he was a professional, intuitive and dedicated manager and mentor to many. He will be sorely missed.”

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One of Cooper's most notable efforts was developing a 10-year, $145 million plan in the 1990s to extend water and sewer service throughout the city. At the time, it was the largest water and sewer expansion in the country.

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Under Cooper’s leadership, the city completed the project in eight years and $35 million under budget.

"Mr. Cooper was dedicated, intelligent, principled, simultaneously strategic and tactical and much more," Mayor Greg Oravec said. "He was also a force of nature, who would work with many City Councils, his growing staff and our growing community to take our city out of the shadow of being a GDC company town into the light of being a real city." 

Without the investment in water and sewer service, former City Councilwoman Paula Lewis said, it would have been difficult for the city to grow to the eighth-most populous city in the state.

"If all those folks were still on septics and well (water), that would have been very injurious to the environment," said Lewis, who served on the council from 1994-1996. "He certainly put the city in a good position to grow. He was very proactive and a definitive leader. He was devoted to the city and always looking out for the good of the city."

Cooper's ability to anticipate the city's future needs played an integral role in its growth,said County Commissioner Linda Bartz, who served on the City Council from 2006-2106.

"Don Cooper was a visionary," Bartz said. "He led the charge for Port St. Lucie to grow. He raised the city to new levels. He was always looking for ways to improve the city and to take care of the employees. His death is a loss to our city." 

Cooper resigned as city manager January 2010. He went on to positions at Culpepper & Terpening, a Fort Pierce-based civil engineering and planning firm. He was city manager of Yakima, Washington, for three months in 2011; chief finance officer and chief business officer for Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies; and became city manager of Delray Beach in 2015.

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Five years ago, Cooper was one of 85 applicants for St. Lucie County administrator, losing out to Howard Tipton.

In a 2011, Cooper told TCPalm he was most proud of and what he would call his legacy is the development of the city's staff.

"When I came to work here, one of the things that I was told was that the staff was not held in high regard, and it couldn't get things accomplished," Cooper said in the historical society video.

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"The staff now can. Many people put down Port St. Lucie, and I don't think it has any reason to be put down. Not at all.

"It's a city that's changing. It's evolving. It's going to continue and so is the organization. The only legacy I want to have is that I helped it along the way."

Cooper is survived by his wife, Linda; daughters, Kimberly Cockrell of Palm City and Ginny Cochran of Port St. Lucie; a sister, Sherry Weller of Iowa; and seven grandchildren, according to an obituary at Haisley Funeral and Cremation Service.  

There will be a "Celebration of Life" for Cooper 4-6 p.m. Thursday in the Emerald Ballroom at the Civic Center, 9221 S.E. Civic Center Place.