BAM Biographies:   Joseph F. (Fen) Cooper, Jr.

 

Fen Cooper (b. 1937) was raised in Santa Cruz, California and attended schools there. His collegiate studies in chemistry and geology were at Hartnell College (Salinas, California) and San Jose State College (San Jose, California). Until retirement, he was a building and road specifications engineer with Santa Cruz County.

He has been an avid collector of rare minerals since 1957 and has authored and co-authored more than twenty papers dealing with minerals and mineral occurrences in the western United States. Fen was honored with the new mineral, fencooperite, a very rare hydrous barium iron silicate-carbonate-chloride, discovered at Trumbull Peak, Mariposa County, California and described in The Canadian Mineralogist (2001). He was subsequently honored by BAM in 2000 with the New Mineral Award and the Mineralogical Achievement Award for his sustained efforts in the field of mineralogy. Fen served as BAM President from 1989-____.

Fen's mineral collecting career began in earnest in 1957 with the near weekly exploration of the Kalkar Quarry in Santa Cruz, where 76 minerals were recognized, including the new mineral, pabstite.

His mineral collecting adventures, in addition to many California localities, included trips to Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Colorado with his collecting partner, Gail Dunning. Specific localities where in depth published studies were conducted included the Alta mine, Hale Creek mine, the Spring Creek area, Darwin mines, The Geysers, Sulfur Hole, Stayton mine, Killie mine, Mount Hamilton, Clear Creek mine, Victor claim, and the Outlaw mine.

In recent years he has been compiling his collecting adventures on CD from his extensive field notes made during the many years of collecting.

Back to the Biography Listings.

Published Works

1.   GROSS, E., CHESTERMAN, C., DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1967) Mineralogy of the Kalkar Quarry, Santa Cruz, California.  California Division of Mines Special Report 92, 3-10.

 

2.   DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1969) Letovicite from The Geysers, Sonoma County, California. Mineral Information Service, 22, 135.

 

3.   COOPER, J. F., JR., and DUNNING, G. E. (1969) Struvite found at Mono Lake. Mineral Information Service, 22, no. 3.

 

4.   DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1969) A second occurrence of Antarcticite, from Bristol Dry Lake, California. American Mineralogist, 54, 1018-1025.

 

5.   COOPER, J. F., JR., and DUNNING, G. E. (1972) Melanophlogite from Mount Hamilton, Santa Clara County, California. American Mineralogist, 57, 1494-1504.

 

6.   DUNNING, G. E., COOPER, J. F., JR., and WHITE, J. (1975) Chromian alumohydrocalcite from California and knipovicite discredited. Mineralogical Record, 6, 180-183.

 

7.   DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1986) Mineralogy of the Kalkar Quarry, Santa Cruz, California. Mineralogical Record, 17, 315-326.

 

8.   DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1987) Mineralogy of the Killie mine, Elko County, Nevada.    Mineralogical Record, 18, 413-420.

 

9.   DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1987) Inesite from the Hale Creek mine, Trinity County, California. Mineralogical Record, 18, 341-347.

 

10. DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1989) Stibnites of the Stayton District, Hollister, California. Mineralogical Record, 20, 427-438.

 

11. DUNNING, G. E., MOSS, G., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1991) The Outlaw mine, Nye County, Nevada. Mineralogical Record, 22, 171-182.

 

12. DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1993) History and minerals of The Geysers, Sonoma County, California. Mineralogical Record, 24, 339-354.

 

13. DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1995) Troilite from the Low Divide District, Del Norte County, California. California Geology, 48, 119-128 (Sept.-Oct.); Baymin Journal (2002), 3, 1.   www.baymin.org 

 

14. DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (2005) Mineralogy of the Spring Creek area, Plumas County, California. Axis, 4, no. 2, 1-30.  Axis Downloads  

 

15. DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR.  (1999) Barium silicate minerals from Trumbull Peak, Mariposa County, California. Mineralogical Record, 30, 411-417.

 

16. DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (2000) Brookite from Hale Creek, Trinity County, California.  Mineralogical Record, 31, 341-343.

 

17. DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR. (1998) Namibite: a summary of world occurrences.  Mineralogical Record, 29, 163-166.

 

18. DUNNING, G. E., and COOPER, J. F., JR.  (2002) Pseudomorphic melanophlogites from California.  Mineralogical Record, 33, 237-242.

 

19. CHRISTY, A. G., DUNNING, G. E., HADLEY, T. A., MAGNASCO, J., and COOPER, J. F., JR.  (20xx) Paragenesis of mercury minerals at Clear Creek, San Benito County, California: Constraints from computer modeling.  (in preparation)

 

20. DUNNING, G. E., MOčLO, Y., ROBERTS, A. C., and COOPER, J. F., JR.  (2002) Ag-Cu-Pb-Bisulfosalts new to Darwin Mining District, Inyo County, California.  Between the Basins: Exploring the Western Mojave and Southern Basin and Range Province, California State University Fullerton, Desert Studies Consortium, April 2002, 69-75; Axis, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2006.

 

21. COOPER, J. F., JR., DUNNING, G. E., HADLEY, T. A., MOLLER, W. P., and REYNOLDS, R. E. (2002) The Sulfur Hole, Calico District, San Bernardino Co., California.  Between the Basins: Exploring the Western Mojave and Southern Basin and Range Province, April 2002, California State University Fullerton, Desert Studies Consortium, 29-36. Axis, 1, no. 3, 1-18 (2005).  Axis Downloads        

 

22. COOPER, J. F., JR, DUNNING, G. E. and HADLEY, T. (2003) Mineralogy of the Victor Claim, Clear Creek area, New Idria district, San Benito County, California.  Baymin Journal, 4, No. 1.  www.baymin.org

 

23. DUNNING, G. E., HADLEY, T. A., CHRISTY, A. G., MAGNASCO, J., and COOPER, J. F., JR.  (2005) The Clear Creek mine, San Benito County, California: A Unique Mercury Locality. Mineralogical Record, 36, 337-363.