The late Howard Cooper, a San Francisco resident who grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts, has bequeathed $1 million to provide “immediate-use funding for the [Boston Public Library] to expand its current LGBTQ+ circulating collection, hire a researcher to review the Library’s historic collections for LGBTQ+ materials, and hire an intern to work specifically on LGBTQ+ community history as part of the Boston Community History Project,” according to a BPL press release — plus to create an endowed fund.
Reports Boston.com:
Howard Cooper resided in San Francisco as an adult, but grew up in Dorchester, attended Boston Public Schools, and regularly visited the central library in Copley Square as a teenager in the 1950s, the library noted in a press release.
In his estate plans, Cooper, who died last year at the age of 82, named theHis obituary described him as “smart, generous, funny and non-judgmental. He was cherished as a unique and wonderful person by so many.” The obituary also encouraged donations to be made in Cooper’s memory to the library fund. Boston Public Library Fund as a beneficiary.
Additionally, and most critically, the bequest establishes The Howard Cooper LGBTQ+ Endowment Fund, which will provide long-term funding for initiatives such as the annual publication of the “We are Pride” booklist, interactive youth programming, and resources for teens that build upon gender and sexual orientation resources already in place, the library noted.
“With his generous gift, Howard Cooper’s legacy reflects the essential founding principle of the Boston Public Library – free to all – and further positions the BPL as a cornerstone of democracy,” Boston Public Library President David Leonard said in a statement.
Read the complete Boston.com story here.
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