Gregory Cooper: making it work

Growing up, inner-city Rochester was a world away from Ithaca. Gregory Cooper, an athlete all his life, heard about Ithaca from a fellow high school opponent and figured someday he would check it out.

After Greg finished high school, he wanted an active, challenging job where he could guide young adults. This led him to become the only African American counselor in an Outward Bound program in West Virginia. It was a big change from urban Rochester, where he was surrounded by family and childhood friends.

This job convinced Greg that he was good working with at-risk teens, that he enjoyed getting to know more of the rural, undeveloped landscape and that he had no problem trailblazing uncharted racial progress.

After marrying, Dollbaby “Dee” (Hayes) suggested they both apply for jobs working with teens in the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (NYS OCFS) facilities in Tompkins County.

Many people find it challenging to begin a new career in a large statewide agency. Greg acclimated easily, and both Coopers have now worked at NYS OCFS facilities in this area for 27 years.

Over the years, Greg has become well-known and much admired within OCFS circles for his consistently positive attitude, his reliability and the solid work he manages with incarcerated youth. He is now at the top of his game.

Somehow, Greg has balanced the challenging work of counseling incarcerated teens with his other loves, including family, sports and community service.

Greg and his wife figured out early on how to manage their schedules in two different facilities and cover childcare for their son, Devin. The move alone from Rochester to rural communities in Tompkins County was an adjustment.

“The Ithaca area is a different world from the world in which I was raised, but we have thrived,” Greg said.

Since 1993, Greg has played and coached semi-pro football, with practices two to three times a week. Over the years, Greg has played with the Rochester Warriors (a long trek for practices), Syracuse Express and Binghamton Southern Tier Green Machine (formerly the Broome County Jets). And in Ithaca, the Wave, and now, the Warriors.

For years, he also assisted coaching youth and high school football at Newfield High School. Yet, no one who knows Greg has heard him complaining that he is tired or stressed with all his juggling. He shows up for work, gets home in time to parent and gets on the practice field both as a teammate and as a coach for young and adult athletes.

By the time Devin was old enough for flag football, Greg was on the field coaching kids in sports too. Devin is now a 6’6” basketball player at Plymouth State in New Hampshire, and Greg knows how much the teamwork, discipline and camaraderie of sports can add to a young person’s self-esteem and maturity. Someday, when Greg retires from OCFS, he hopes to share his skills as an assistant coach at one of the local colleges or high schools.

Those of us who don’t know Greg’s work behind the tall, roll-wire fences or from coaching kids’ sports recognize him as the friendly security guard at the entrance of our much-loved Tompkins County Public Library.

With a Hollywood smile and an easy familiarity with little kids, teenagers and older folks, few would guess the physical acumen and training their greeter has gathered over the years.

Those who have known Greg for 30 years remark on his unflappable good nature, “positive vibes” and ability to calm the out-of-control situations he may encounter as he goes through his days.

Greg savors the love of learning that families exude when they wheel their little ones in strollers into the amazing library.

He knows a lot of the teens who did their projects together, tutored one another and took classes at the library pre-COVID-19.

When we last spoke on Juneteenth, Greg said he would like to help the community and law enforcement “bridge the gap.”

“Growing up, my mother always urged me to ‘Make it work,’” he said. “We have to do something to improve police-community relations, and I would like to do what I can to make that work.”

Stop by and meet Gregory Cooper as you enter the recently reopened TCPL. If he isn’t at his spot, it must be that he and his wife managed to get the same “pass days.”