![\"gcooper2\"](\"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/gcooper2.jpg\")
<\/a>Across his long and storied career, alumnus Gordon Cooper, PE (B.S. Mechanical Engineering \u201950) played a leading role in helping major manufacturers grow their global operations.\u00a0 Among the highlights of his career was his contributions toward expanding the iconic Mickey Mouse watch line first introduced in 1933.<\/p>\nMr. Cooper is now retired and living in Palm Beach, Florida, where this octogenarian still enjoys hitting the golf links under sunny skies whenever possible.<\/p>\n
But during his working career, he was a focused, ambitious achiever who contributed to the expansion of three companies that still exist today: Timex, Shuron Optical and Broan\/Nutone.<\/p>\n
As a student at Leavenworth High School in Waterbury, Mr. Cooper recalls, one of his teachers had a second job as an engineer at the Brass City\u2019s Waterbury Clock Company.\u00a0 Admiring Mr. Cooper\u2019s skillful drafting work, the teacher suggested he apply to work at the clock company. That recommendation commenced a long relationship between Mr. Cooper and the company that would become Timex.\u00a0 At 16, he began work as a junior drafter translating the engineers\u2019 designs into exact, scale models of the mechanical parts that enable a watch to function.\u00a0 Those were the days before the advent of computers, when everything from architectural drawings and car designs to small devices were painstakingly designed on large pads of paper using a T-square, to be faithfully reproduced by the production team.<\/p>\n
As he graduated from high school, World War II dominated global events, and like so many young men, he enlisted in the Air Corps.\u00a0 He explains that back then, aviation cadets had to have two years of college. To help young men fulfill this requirement, they were sent to one of two universities offering intensive, compressed college courses for cadets. He attended Xavier University in Cincinnati, which provided two years\u2019 worth of education in just six tightly choreographed months. \u201cWe students were in school seven days a week, day in and day out, without a break,\u201d he recalls. Next up was pilot training in Biloxi, MS and then cadet training in Enid, OK.\u00a0 Mr. Cooper was a pilot until the war ended in 1945.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
After returning home to Connecticut, Mr. Cooper attended UConn on the GI Bill and focused intently on his engineering studies with the ambition of building a successful engineering career. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in his native Waterbury, as the Waterbury clock company struggled during the war, it was bought by two Norwegian families, who expanded the operation and renamed it United States Time Corp. (renamed Timex in 1969).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Storied Career Years<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n