Stanley W. Cooper | Business owner, 81

Stanley W. Cooper, 81, of Upper Gwynedd, retired owner of a plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning company, died Friday at Abington Memorial Hospital of complications from heart surgery.

Mr. Cooper grew up in Willow Grove and graduated from Abington High School. During World War II he served in the Merchant Marines in the Atlantic.

After the war, he worked for plumbing contractors before establishing his own firm, Stanley W. Cooper Inc., in Willow Grove in 1954. His son, Stanley Jr., now runs the business.

Since retiring in 1998, Mr. Cooper and his wife, Barbara Palmer Cooper, had wintered in Naples, Fla.

He loved family, friends, and golf, his wife said. He played four times a week at Cedarbrook Country Club in Blue Bell or at Naples Heritage Country Club and shot his age at 80, she said.

Mr. Cooper was a 32d Degree Mason.

In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by daughters Julia Strang and Claudia Williams; a brother and six grandchildren.

The funeral will be at 10 a.m. today at Church of the Messiah, Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. Burial will be in Whitemarsh Memorial Park, Prospectville.