Giving Profiles

Wilson Cooper ’55

Occupation:
President, Sterling Software (retired)

His Gift:
Bryce Harris Merit Scholarship, an annual scholarship for a meritorious student.

How did Baylor influence your life?
I am convinced that the high school years are critical in establishing a young person’s life skills. Like all Baylor students, I learned to work hard and to manage my time. In my case I found English to be my most valuable classroom work – particularly because of George Bock’s 7th grade grammar drills and Roy Ashley’s 10th and 11th grade writing assignments. I ended up in a technical field (computer software), and my ability to write – reports, proposals, strategic plans – made all the difference between me and my peers.

What made you establish this fund so many years after graduating?
Sue and I retired in 1995 while we were still healthy enough to walk some trails and bicycle some more roads. Our spreadsheet models indicated that we could live to be 100 and still have money left over, and we decided to embark on a modest philanthropic program. My ideal model is to run our assets down to zero on our 100th birthdays and then die, preferably while hiking or cycling over some mountain pass.

How did you choose the recipients?
We wanted to give in areas of personal interest and to make a difference right away. Even though I had attended Baylor on a scholarship, deciding to give was not an easy call – the annual tuition here, as at most private secondary schools, now rivals that of my Palo Alto neighbor, Stanford University. Bill Cushman and I talked about it, and he made two convincing points: the student-to-faculty ratio is far lower at Baylor, and the Baylor faculty is dedicated to teaching rather than to researching. We settled on funding partial scholarships, and we have gotten an enormous amount of satisfaction out of this program. Three of “our” students graduated last spring.

Why did you name the scholarships for Bryce?
In seventh grade he taught me math, and in ninth and tenth grades he taught me football. In both he spent as much time encouraging us to think about what we were learning as on teaching us mechanics. When I was a college senior, Bryce came to Chapel Hill on a sabbatical, and we were in the same math class. That’s when I learned how smart he is. In all of my interactions with him, Bryce has simply been the best in his class.

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