Cecil George Cooper (generally known as George Cooper) was born in
1948 in Springfield, Colorado, and lived a life full of art, music,
creativity, and craftsmanship until it was cut short by his sudden
death from a heart attack as he slept on January 31, 2020.

While in high school George began repairing player pianos.  He studied
music and organ at the University of Colorado.  He was drafted into the
Army and served from 1970 to 1973 as a medic during the war in Vietnam.
When his military service ended, George started a business in Wichita,
Kansas, making roll frames and parts for player pianos.

George and his then-wife, Jill Tatum Cooper, made organ parts which
George sold through his company Mechanical Music.  The Stinson Band
Organ Company, Bellefontaine, Ohio, depended heavily on George and
Jill for items needed in the construction of the band organs which
Don Stinson was producing from 1965 to 2019.  After Don Stinson
retired from the organ business, George purchased many of the design
molds which Don owned with the idea of continuing their manufacture,
a plan cut short by George's sudden death.

Living in Wichita and being an organ man, it was natural for George to
become friends with Gordon Ramsey, the man at Joyland Amusement Park
(built by the Ottaway family and later owned by Stanley Nelson) who
maintained Joyland Louie, the park's famous Wurlitzer 160 ("Mammoth")
band organ, installed in 1947 by Jess Gibbs.

Jill and George divorced in June 1989 when George was living with his
partner Mark Bassett.  George had met Mark Travis Bassett (b. 1953)
when he taught Mark country and ballroom dancing.  Because of their
many shared interests such as dancing, art, writing, and music, it was
natural that a partnership developed, starting with collaboration on
Mark's 1985 PhD dissertation at the University of Missouri.

Eventually Mark and George settled in Lakewood, Ohio, and from 1997
to 2019 George worked for the Holtkamp Organ Company in Cleveland as
a pipe organ technician, where he was also one of Holtkamp's three main
pipe voicers until his retirement in 2019, shortly following Mark's own
retirement from full-time teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Finally, after sharing lives together since the mid-1980s, Mark and
George eloped from their home in Cleveland for a brief trip to Niagara
Falls, New York, where they were married on December 26, 2013.  And
they continued to share mutual interests and enthusiasms, with great
plans for a satisfying post-retirement life until Fate intervened,
requiring George to leave behind as part of his estate his precious
organ, "Spirit of San Diego," built by Charlie Porter.

A complete story of their life can be found at
https://aapa.info/george-cooper-rip-husband-of-mark-bassett/ 

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York

 [   George Cooper & Mark Bassett
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/20/06/26/200626_230655_mark-b-George.jpg 
 [   George & Jill Cooper with Gordon Ramsey, ca. 1976
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/20/06/26/200626_230655_Mechanical%20Music%20-%20George%20Cooper%20-%202.jpg 
 [   Mechanical Music order form
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/20/06/26/200626_230655_Mechanical%20Music%20-%20George%20Cooper%20-%2015.jpg 
 [   Roll frames made by George Cooper
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/20/06/26/200626_230655_Mechanical%20Music%20-%20George%20Cooper%20-%204.jpg 
 [    "Spirit of San Diego" built by Charlie Porter
 [  https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/20/06/27/200627_062137_Spirit%20of%20San%20Diego-vid7.jpg 
 [
 [ I had the pleasure of meeting George by invitation at the garage of Charlie
 [ Porter's house where he played The Spirit of San Diego one last before he
 [ loaded it up into truck for shipment back east.   I belive George found
 [ out about the availability of the organ through the MMD.  I was very
 [ thrilled to see this marvelous one-of-a-kind instrument land in the hands
 [ of someone who would appreciate it and was well equipped to maintain
 [ it.  I was stunned to learn of George's death.   --Jody