Richard James Victor Cooper

Richard was born in Nottingham, England on 10th July 1949 to Pastor Victor and Mrs Rhona Cooper, a young brother for Helen (now Helen Pearson) . Richard attended Costons' Junior School in Greenford and then Stanborough Secondary School in Watford. He was baptised by his father in July 1963 and after completing secondary school he worked for short periods in mental nursing, at an aircraft factory and in landscape gardening. Like his father and grandfather before him, he went on to study Theology at Newbold College. He entered the Adventist ministry in 1972.

He commenced his work as an intern in Scotland, followed by a brief assignment in Wales and then in Northern England Conference in 1972. He married Tabitha Abel in December that same year and served as a pastor in Preston, Newcastle, Halifax and Kettering.

Ordained at the North British Conference Session in June 1981, Richard took study leave from September 1983 to do graduate study at Loma Linda University in California, USA. Richard was also associate pastor at Mentone SDA church at this time. After completing his Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy, he returned in November 1987 to the Irish Mission where he served as a pastor until October 1990. .The family moved back to California where Richard continued his pastoral vocation as elder and Sabbath School teacher in his local church in Mentone, California. He worked for 15 years at Loma Linda University Medical Center. His life was punctuated by various bouts of ill-health and finally a shoulder injury which eventually resulted in his going into residential care in 2008. He never lost his desire to serve, and served in resident care by holding morning worships until he developed Parkinson's disease, and moved into the nursing home where he died last week.

Richard and Tabitha who divorced in 2002, had three children, Todd, Ross and Joelle.