Cooper was born on October 2, 1936, in Lafayette, Louisiana.[1] He later attended Most Pure Heart of Mary High School in Mobile, Alabama, graduating in 1954.[2] He was then educated at the University of Notre Dame, receiving a B.S. degree in finance in 1958.[3] The June 1958 commencement program lists him as Gary Mouton Cooper (Mouton was his mother's maiden name).[4]
In 1970, Cooper left the Marine Corps, though he continued to serve as a major in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.[1] From 1970, he was director of an insurance company and funeral home that had been owned by his family for decades in Mobile, Alabama. He was elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1973.[6] In 1978, the Governor of Alabama named Cooper to his cabinet, with Cooper becoming Commissioner of the Alabama State Department of Human Resources.[6]
Cooper attended the program for Senior Executives in Government at Harvard University in 1979.[6] He joined David Volkert and Associates, a regional engineering and architectural firm in Mobile, Alabama, as vice president for marketing in 1981.[6]
^ ab"Nominations Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, First Session, 101st Congress: Hearings Before the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate". Vol. 101, no. 537. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1990. p. 1010.