St Hugh's College, Oxford - Chronicle 1997-1998

Miss Theodora Cooper, Emeritus Fellow Theodora Constance Cooper was born in Belfast on 1 November 1934, one of the two children of Mary (nee Gregory) and Ralph Cooper (Reader in Mathematics at Queen's University, Belfast). Her brother was killed in his youth during a climbing exercise, and for the rest of her life she took on the responsibilities of an only child. She was educated at the Strathearn School, Belfast and The Ladies College, Cheltenham. From there she won a place at Girton College, Cambridge where she read Economics. After graduating in 1956 she left for Stockholm on a Swedish Government Scholarship and then returned to Girton as a research student. In 1959 she became a member of the Economic Division of the I. L .0 . in Geneva. In 1960 she was appointed Assistant in the Faculty of Economics and Social Studies at Manchester University. Later in that same year she was appointed Lecturer in Economics at St Hugh's College, Oxford, her field of study being wage development in Britain in the post-war period together with social security and Labour policies in Common Market countries. In 1963 she was appointed Fellow and Tutor at St Hugh's College and University Lecturer, a post she held until her retirement in 1995. In 1965, under the Wilson government, she was asked to act as an Economic consultant to the Cabinet office, work which she greatly enjoyed. In 1980 she was elected Senior Proctor at Oxford and was the first woman to hold this office.

Her contributions to her College, to the University and to the Civil Service give some indication of the range of her abilities, and the confidence that academics, economists and politicians placed in her judgement and her integrity.

In spite of these public responsibilities she was a woman who inspired affection and loyalty as well as respect and admiration. She was devoted to her family (known as Theo to her colleagues she was Dora to her relations), and after her father suffered a severe stroke which left him unable to speak and confined to a wheelchair, she looked after him with great tenderness for many years.

Transparent honesty was one of her most striking characteristics.

Sometimes even an inadvertent cause of embarrassment. For she could not prevent an expression of horror and disbelief crossing her face when a colleague or a pupil made a remark that she found stupid. It did not take long, however, for colleagues or pupils to realise that this was not a sign of contempt but of respect for the intelligence with which she credited them.

In all her many activities she found time to cultivate warm and varied friendships. She loved walking, reading, music especially Opera, and drew her companions to share these enthusiasms Many of her happiest days were spent in the country at her flat in Shipton-under-Wychwood where she entertained generously and widely. Her fight against the cancer which eventually killed her, began before her retirement, but when she returned to Oxford in 1995 she carried on voluntary work in the Citizens Advice Bureau 36