Saugus residents fondly recall late Doug Cooper

SAUGUS – Friends and family remembered Saugus resident and Vietnam veteran Douglas Cooper as selfless and caring after the 63-year-old passed away suddenly last week.Cooper?s son, Brian Cooper, called his father a “great man” who loved cracking jokes and loved “everything that had to do with Saugus.”?As far as the veterans go, he would do anything for them,” said Cooper, 30. “He would do anything for anybody. He?d give the shirt off his back and do it with a smile on his face. No matter what he was going through he always had a smile on his face and said, ?Don?t worry about me.?”Cooper said his father?s death was sudden and is still sinking in for the family.?He passed away on Friday unexpectedly,” said Cooper. “He wasn?t sick or anything like that. It?s just such a shock. Everybody is holding up pretty well right now, but I think today and tomorrow are going to be tough for everybody.”Cooper served in the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam and was a member and former commander of the Saugus American Legion, Cpl. Scott J. Procopio Post 210. He also served as Veterans Council President for 10 years and in 2010 he was named the Saugus Person of the Year.Selectman Steve Castinetti took over as Veterans Council President in 2010 and said Cooper was always there for him to show him the ropes.?We?ve been friends for a long time,” said Castinetti. “I didn?t really know what I was doing at first, but there were always words of encouragement from him.”Castinetti remembered one Memorial Day parade in 2008 – the same year Castinetti retired from the Navy – when Cooper honored him by letting him lead the parade down Main Street.?He was always thinking about those things and what he can do to make things better for veterans,” said Castinetti. “Doug and I both graduated from high school in 1966. We were the same age. To have somebody that young go that quickly really resonates. He certainly was a veterans? veteran.”Gordon Shepard served in the Army in Vietnam and said he was friends with Cooper since their days on the Saugus High School football team.?My father-in-law was also a legion commander,” said Shepard. “When (my father-in-law) couldn?t get up over the stairs to go up to the functions up there, Doug came down and shook his hand and said, ?Hello, how are you, good to see you.? He was that type of guy. He?d go out of his way.”Shepard worked to restore the veterans grave markers at Riverside Cemetery over the last several years and said when Cooper found out about the project, he sent him members from the American Legion to help. Cooper also helped pay for some of the project after he learned Shepard was spending his own money on it.?He wrote me a check for $300 from the legion,” said Shepard. “How can you beat a guy like that? Never did I expect that he?d pass away. Now I?m going to be taking care of his site. He was a good friend and a good person.”Fellow Vietnam veteran Arthur Grabowski said Cooper helped advocate for veterans even when “being active wasn?t popular.”?It was a forgotten time,” said Grabowski. “It was before Iraq and Afghanistan when things were kind of out of sight, out of mind for veterans. Then, after 9-11, the new patriotism showed up. That interim time between the end of Vietnam and the start of 9-11, you really had to go out and work to get that respect and recognition for the veterans and he was always out front doing that, always. The town will miss all the hard work he did all these years to support the veterans.”In lieu of flowers, donations in Cooper?s memory may be made to the Saugus American Legion, Cpl. Scott J. Procopio Post 210, 44 Taylor St., Saugus, MA 01906.Funeral services will be held at the Bisbee-Porcella Funeral Home at 549 Lincoln Ave. today at 11 a.m. Relatives and friends are invited.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].