By Den Ardinger 32° KCCH

Astronaut Gordon “Gordo” Cooper, was born March 6, 1927, in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  His name at birth was Leroy Gordon Cooper, Junior.  He was the only child of Leroy Gordon Cooper and his wife, Hattie Lee Herd.  His father, an Army Colonel, took him up on his first flight at the age of 8 when he was allowed to take control of the plane.  He never forgot it.  By the age of 12 he had (unofficially) flown solo and he had his private pilot’s license at 16.

After graduating from high school during World War II in 1945, he joined the U. S. Marine Corps.  The war ended before he deployed overseas.  He then served on the Presidential Honor Guard in Washington, DC.  After being discharged, he moved to Hawaii where he studied for three years at the University of Hawaii and received an Army officer’s commission through ROTC.  While living in Hawaii, he met his first wife, Trudy B. Olson.  They met at a local flying club where he owned a J-3 Cub and where Trudy was also an active pilot.  They married in August 1947 and had two daughters together. 

Gordo transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1949 and was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.  He completed his aerospace engineering degree through the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1956.

As a U. S. Air Force pilot, he flew F-84 and F-86 fighters, and flight-tested experimental aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

In April 1959 he was selected for the astronaut program at the age of 32. He was the youngest of the original seven Mercury astronauts and was the last to launch into space.  His Mercury 9 ship, named Faith 7, was in space on May 15-16, 1963.  He logged more time in space than all other Mercury missions combined racking up a total of 34 hours and 20 minutes.  He was the first American astronaut to sleep in space.  The mission almost ended in disaster when the automatic system controlling the descent failed.  He took manual control, made his calculations, and brought his craft to an ocean splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean only 4.3 miles from the recovering aircraft carrier, USS Kearsarge.

While flying as the Command Pilot on the Gemini 5 mission in 1965 with astronaut Pete Conrad, Gordo became the world record holder with 222 hours in space.  On this mission he had trouble with his experimental fuel cell, which was being tested for the long-term Apollo flights, but the mission proved that humans could live in the weightlessness of space long enough to make it to the Moon and back.

Brother Cooper became a Master Mason in Carbondale Lodge 82 in Carbondale, Colorado in 1960. His father, also a Mason, owned property there and the family spent free time at their cottage. Gordo was also a Shriner with Bahia Shrine here in Orlando, a York Rite Mason, and a 33° Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction) Honorary Inspector General. 

Feeling his career as an astronaut was at an end after being passed over as the Command Pilot of Apollo 13, he retired from the U. S. Air Force as a Colonel in 1970.  He then spent years with major companies including General Motors, Ford and Chrysler building, testing, and racing speed boats and championship race cars.  He pioneered using jet engines on cars and was part owner of a boat racing team. Working with The Walt Disney Company, he consulted on the design and construction of Epcot.

In 1972 he married Suzan Taylor as his second wife, and they had two daughters.

Gordo’s experiences were written about in his memoir “Leap of Faith: An Astronaut’s Journey into the Unknown”.  In it, he told of his encounters with UFO’s and his belief in extraterrestrial life visiting Earth.

Over his career he was awarded many honors including the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross twice, the Air Force Legion of Merit, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Collier Trophy, the Harmon Trophy, and the DeMolay Legion of Honor among many others.  He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science Degree from the University of Oklahoma and inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame in 1980,  inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1981, and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990. 

Gordo died in Ventura, California of natural causes on October 4, 2004, at the age of 77.

Gordon Cooper, more than a man with the Right Stuff, a Mason.