[1] Born in Waterloo Township, Laurens County, Cooper graduated with a law degree from Polytechnic Institute in San Germán, Puerto Rico.

These initiatives were paid for by stricter enforcement of existing tax laws and re-evaluating state property.

He resigned from the governorship in 1922 to accept an appointment to the Federal Farm Loan Board that lasted five years.

After this, Cooper returned to the practice of law but was called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve as the General Counsel of the Commodity Credit Corporation.

The day after Judge Cooper sentenced the defendants to the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, an unsuccessful assassination attempt was made against him.