Aileen R Cooper

Aileen Cooper, beloved mother, grandmother and friend, passed away on November 19, 2025, in Chevy Chase, Maryland at the age of 92. A warm person who made many deep connections, she took a keen interest in others. Her friends described her as thoughtful, supportive and sincere. She was also utterly unsentimental and had little patience for wallowing. A pragmatist who believed in powering on in life, she would dismiss regretful perseveration with a shrug: “Coulda woulda shoulda.” Born September 29, 1933 in Paterson, New Jersey, to Lee Cohen and Hyman Levine, she grew up together with her older sister, Phyllis, in a neighborhood full of extended family and treasured her relationships with her cousins. In high school she and a favorite cousin sometimes skipped class to ride the train into New York City, where the two visited jazz clubs during the day. After graduation she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for one semester. Following the tragic death of her father she transferred to NYU and then to Montclair Teachers College to stay closer to home. She married her high school sweetheart, David Cooper, in 1957, with whom she had two children, Amy Cooper (1962) and Mitchell Cooper (1963). In 1967, the family moved to St. Paul, where David accepted a job as city planner and the children attended grade school. Aileen worked for the University of Minnesota Press as a book editor and was the campaign manager for the third woman ever elected to the St. Paul city council, Ruby Hunt. She also ran a successful multimillion-dollar bond campaign for St. Paul public schools. After nearly a decade in St. Paul, the family moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where Aileen worked as a senior public relations advisor in the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Carter administration. Later, she worked for B’nai B’rith Women, and travelled to Russia to meet with refusniks and to Nairobi for the World Conference on Women. On a whim she took the foreign service exam, passed, and was later part of a successful class action lawsuit brought by women who were denied jobs on the basis of their sex. She ended her

career after working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency throughout several administrations, getting crucial information to communities afflicted by natural disasters. Aileen had a strong sense of adventure throughout her life. As a fourth-grader she was captivated learning about Marco Polo and his travels on the Silk Road connecting China, the Middle East and Europe. Into adulthood she devoured books about history and world cultures. On her 60th birthday she traveled to Nepal. Trips followed to India, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Eastern Europe and China. Aileen valued her family above everything and was overjoyed by the birth of her grandchildren: Amy Cooper’s sons Ethan and Max Weinstein, born in Chevy Chase, Maryland in 2002, and Mitchell Cooper and Ruth Conniff’s daughters Lily Cooper, born in Madison Wisconsin in 2001, followed by Rose Cooper in 2003 and Daphne Cooper in 2006. Every summer Aileen took her children and grandchildren to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, delighting in bringing them together and replicating the summers she enjoyed with her sister and her cousins on the Jersey Shore. She was exceptionally close to her daughter, beloved by her son and dearly loved by her daughter in law and “compadres” Greg and Dorothy Conniff, cousin Ruthellen Harris and Ruthellen’s children, Hadar, Greg and Jamie, as well as her late sister’s children, her niece and nephew Beth and Howard Levinsky, for whom she had special affection. Her love, humor and courage made the world a better place. May her memory be for a blessing. Donations in Aileen Cooper’s honor can be made to HAIS , the Jewish refugee services organization, and to the League of Women Voters Education Fund .