By Ervin Dyer
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 P.G. Publishing Co.
Melvin Cooper, who served the Pittsburgh Fire Brueau for 35 years, was one of the first black captains in the city.
He joined the bureau in December 1954, beginning his career in the West End unit but spending the remainder of it at Station 29, a racially mixed truck and engine company in Homewood.
Rejected by the armed forces because he had flat feet and turned away from the police department because he was too short, Mr. Cooper passed the firefighter test and became one of the few black firemen in the bureau.
He started as pump man but moved through the ranks and was promoted to captain in August 1975. He retired in 1988.
Mr. Cooper, who had Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes, died of kidney failure in the Echo nursing facility near Columbus, Ohio. He was 82.
Originally from Cecil, Washington County, he was the eldest of three brothers. His father was a coal miner and mother ran a rooming house that took care of coal miners.
A former salesman of liqueurs and wine, Mr. Cooper was talkative and cooperative. In 1981, he was a founding member of Flames, a social organization to support black firefighters.
Tom Hull joined Station 29 in 1966 when Mr. Cooper was a lieutenant.
“He worked right along with the guys,” said Mr. Hull. “Anytime there was a fire, he drove the engine truck.”
Homewood’s Station 29 was known for its quick response times and heroics. Mr. Cooper fell through skylights, fought flames on rooftops and was remembered for catching a woman as she jumped from a second-story window in a fire on Kelly Street.
In 1990, Mr. Cooper married Phyllis White, a former school teacher, whom he met through a mutual friend. They moved to the Columbus area so her family could help support them as Mr. Cooper’s medical conditions worsened.
She remembered how her husband had loved the social outreach aspect of his job and always encouraged other young African-American men to pursue careers in firefighting. He frequently put neighborhood youths on the firetruck and rode them around the neighborhood.
In addition to his second wife, he is survived by five children, Sandra Angell of Highland Park, Kevin Cooper of San Francisco, Edward White Jr. of Delaware, Ohio, and Dawn White and John White, both of Columbus. Ohio; two brothers, Dwayne Cooper of the Hill District and Cecil Cooper of Penn Hills; two grandchildren; and a great grandchild.
The funeral was yesterday in Reynoldsburg United Methodist Church, Columbus.