Mac Cooper

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Cooper in 1934

Malcolm McGregor Cooper CBE FRSE (17 August 1910 – 1 September 1989), commonly known as Mac Cooper, was a New Zealand-born agriculturalist and author. He was president of the British Grassland Society and president of the British Society of Animal Production. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations described him as a giant of agriculture.[1]

Life[]

He was born at Havelock North in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay on 17 August 1910, the son of Laurence T. Cooper, a farmer. He as educated at Napier Boys' High School and then at Massey Agricultural College graduating a Bachelor in Agricultural Science in 1933. He then won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University and obtained a Diploma in Rural Economy in 1935 and Bachelor of Literature in 1937.[2][3] He married Hilary Margaret Cecilia Matthews in 1937.[3]

During the Second World War Cooper served in the New Zealand Army (ANZAC) in North Africa and Italy rising to the rank of Major. After the war he decided to stay in Britain to work. From 1947 to 1954 he was Professor of Agriculture at London University. From 1954 until retiral in 1972 he was Dean of Agriculture and Professor of Rural Economy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Cooper died on 1 September 1989.

Honours and awards[]

Cooper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1956, his proposers including David Cuthbertson, H. Cecil Pawson and Meirion Thomas.[2] In the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[4] He was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Science degree by Massey University in 1972.[5]

Publications[]

  • Profitable Sheep Farming (reprinted 1996)
  • Profitable Beef Production (1984)
  • Grass Farming (1973 reprinted 1979)

References[]

  1. ^ Dalton C. (1989) A giant of agriculture (obituary to Professor Malcolm McGregor Cooper). Ministry for Primary Industries
  2. ^ a b Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002. royalsoced.org.uk
  3. ^ a b Traue, J. E., ed. (1978). Who's Who in New Zealand (11th ed.). Wellington: Reed. p. 88. ISBN 0-589-01113-8.
  4. ^ "No. 43667". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1965. p. 5480.
  5. ^ "Honorary doctorate citation, Malcolm McGregor Cooper, 1972". Massey University. 23 May 1972. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
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