"After all, I didn't get to be 96 because I was lucky," Chester H. Cooper said on his
birthday, Jan.11.
"I never, ever, ever smoked," Cooper said. "You know about the Marlboro Man? He died of lung cancer."
Standing in his apartment at Morningside Assisted Living, the veteran Air Force pilot looks younger than his 96 years. He attributes this to 30 minutes of physical training a day and callisthenic exercises picked up from his Air Force training.
Elected 2013's Best Dressed Male by his peers at Morningside, Cooper was dressed for comfort in a navy blue Adidas track suit, a Member's Only jacket draped over his couch.
Born in 1918 in Lancaster County, Pa., Cooper has seen the world transform from horse-drawn carriages to smart cars. Cooper said his father purchased their first family car, a Model T Ford, for $400.
"We took our lives into our hands every time we got in the car with him," Cooper said. "He didn't have good instruction, let's put it that way."
After enlisting in the Air Force during World War II as an aviation cadet, a young Cooper enrolled in flight school at the University of Massachusetts. He trained as pilot in Montgomery at Maxwell Field; Arcadia, Fla; Sumter, SC; and Valdosta, Ga.
The walls of Cooper's apartment are hung with photographs and artwork: an impressionist Parisian street scene painted by Caroline Burnett, a handsome photo of Cooper at age 26 in a suit and tie and framed pictures of his children and grandchildren.
"This kind of tells you the story," Cooper said.
He waved toward a framed collage of photos in his bedroom with "Chester & Shirley Forever" written across the top of the frame. Underneath were black and white photos of Cooper with his wife smiling through the years, posing with children, looking down from a balcony in a church.
"It just evolved," said Cooper, whose wife passed away. "We just cared for each other and so we spent our life together."
Cooper was introduced to the outgoing Shirley by his sister.
"I wasn't shy, but I just didn't have an outgoing personality," Cooper said. "Living with her and being in love with her, it's something that just kind of rubs off on you."
Cooper's easygoing nature helped the Pennsylvania native adjust when his job as a sales representative for Armstrong World Industries brought him to Alabama in the early '50s.
"When we moved here, there was a lot of animosity against people from up north," Cooper said.
His grandfather fought for the Union under General Sherman. Two of Cooper's great uncles became prisoners of war and died at Andersonville Prison in Georgia during the Civil War.
"I was considered a Yankee," Cooper said.
But the differences didn't stop Cooper from making friendships in the South.
"You can always find something about somebody that you like," Cooper said. "Why focus on the things you don't like?"
After 35 years in Alabama and having a son who is an Auburn alumnus, Cooper is a huge Auburn fan.
"That Malzahn--as far as I'm concerned, he hung the moon," Cooper said. "War damn eagle!"
Jeanne Winters shares a table with Cooper in the Mornigside dining room and has been a resident for a year.
"Everybody here's a character," Winters said. "Chester was in the Air Force and so was my first husband, and we talk about what they went through together."
Roshunda Lott, a sophomore in psychology and a resident service staff member, said Cooper is a master conversationalist.
"He really likes to talk to the ladies," Lott said.
"In regards to how old or young you are, you still have romantic notions, even at 96," Cooper said. "I have had a couple girlfriends, but I outlive them."
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