Guy M. Cooper – 50th Reunion Essay

Guy M. Cooper

5723 Orchid Lane

Dallas, TX 75230

guy@guymcooper.com

312-520-6100

College: Saybrook

One lesson of 70 years is that sustaining male friendship is hard. I have only a handful of reliable connections to Yale classmates. Two of my best buds, Charles J. Petre and Dov Ospovat, died at early ages. Some Yale bonds that I expected to persist for a lifetime didn’t hold strong. It’s my fault too. I have never been to a Yale reunion. And I betrayed the trust and friendship of the class member who helped me most in our early days in New Haven. All of the connections that I hoped to have and do not have sadden me. But the few that have persisted are a treasure.

I worked for eleven companies in a 45-year career in investments. I did exceedingly well for a guy whose skill set is not ideally conducive to success in a corporate environment. I wasn’t passionate about any job, and I would have done something different if I had had a trust fund. But I still don’t know what lines of endeavor are free of politics, personality conflict, and power struggle.

I have a 40-year relationship with my trophy wife, Molly Malone, and, one by one, year-by-year, she has wrested control of all the important levers of our life. This is inevitable and resistance is futile. My independence is reduced to a secret stash of hundred dollar bills that I can spend without her permission. I never wanted kids or grandkids, and I do not regret that decision.

I don’t really think much about where I have arrived in my 70th year. It is more than good enough. And I do not quibble over what I do not have (except the Gulfstream).

But I do ponder the mix of ability and luck that has befallen me, and I have deep gratitude for all those who nurtured me. From a modest beginning and upbringing in Oklahoma, a confluence of people and circumstances then and later, including some members of the Yale Class of 1969, has propelled me along to what by any definition is a good life. Yale was the greatest leap forward in the long journey. Many people helped nudge me along, and I honor and love them all profoundly.