Christophe Kay Cooper, age 74, of rural Cannon Falls, Minnesota was born September 26, 1946 in San Angelo, Texas to Billy Spalding and Ruth Elliott Cooper. He grew up in Mitchell County, Texas at Lake Colorado City. He graduated in 1965 from Colorado High School in Colorado City, Texas and studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington part time from September 1965 to May 1969 while working at Bell Helicopter.
His active military career began in 1969 when he joined the Army and became a helicopter pilot and a maintenance test pilot in Vietnam. He left active service in 1975 but served the Alaska Army National Guard from 1977 to 1987 flying the CH-54B “Sky Crane” helicopter. He also served in the Army Air National Guard of TX from 1987 to 1993 and left the military as a Lt. Colonel with over 24 years of service.
Chris joined Exxon in 1978 as a Senior Telecommunications Engineer for Alaska Drilling Operations. Chris was united in marriage to Beverly Jean Harris on August 30, 1979 in Anchorage, Alaska. After a transfer to Houston in 1987, he developed a hyper-fast credit card approval communications protocol used in Exxon’s pay-at-the-pump credit card approvals. In 1993, Chris left Exxon and moved to Minnesota with patent license agreements to expand the technology for use in retail stores and founded Harmonic Systems in Minnesota.
After his family, Chris loved flying. From his first solo in a J3 Cub in 1966, his 24 years of flight in military service, his time as a bush pilot and flight instructor in Alaska, and his long career as an instructor in Minnesota by the end of his life, he accumulated over 9,000 flight hours in a plethora of fixed-wing, rotary-wing and glider aircraft. He taught over 2800 students during his instructing career. Chris established Hummingbird Aviation, first at the airport in Faribault, Minnesota in 2002 and later at Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, MN which he operated until its sale in 2019. He was also a member of Minnesota Soaring Club at Stanton Field.
He loved his family, flying, water skiing, SCUBA diving, snow skiing, music, power boating, sailing, amateur radio, travel, hiking, camping, and teaching others anything he knew.
Chris passed away on Saturday, September 4, 2021 after an over twenty-year battle with cancer. He is survived by his sons George R. Cooper of Flower Mound, TX and David L. Cooper of Esbjerg, Denmark, daughters Christy L. Trevino of Las Cruces, NM, Ashli Price of Spenser, OK; and Katrina Russell of Cannon Falls, MN, sister Carol Johnson of Midlothian, TX, brothers Danny Cooper of Plano, TX and Randy Cooper of Waxahachie, TX, thirteen grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, his aunt Francis Godwin of Colorado City, TX and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. Chris was preceded in death by his parents and his wife Beverly.
He will be missed by everyone who knew him.
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