Leading with Honors

Nicholas Cooper arrived at the University of South Alabama in the fall as one of the most accomplished first-year students in the University’s history. He earned the 2025 Board of Trustees Scholar award with a perfect ACT score, a 4.96 weighted GPA and early acceptance into the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine.

His parents, Craig and Tami Cooper, proudly took in the moment from across the Whiddon Administration Building boardroom as he accepted the award.

The next day, Sept. 6, Craig Cooper suddenly died.

“I kept looking over at him during the ceremony,” Nicholas says. “He had the biggest grin on his face. It’s such a blessing that one of my last memories of him is him smiling proudly at me.”

At South, Cooper and his twin brother, Jacob, continued their classes, formed close friendships with other students in South’s Honors College and carried forward the steady determination their father modeled.

In 2023, Craig Cooper, a longtime engineer, enrolled in South’s nursing college, alongside his daughter and son-in-law, to pursue a new path.

The Coopers have deep ties to South, with graduates that include Craig ’20, Tami ’99, and siblings Kailan ’20, Christian ’21 and Kadie Grace ’25.

Both Cooper twins are on a pre-med track, majoring in biomedical sciences. They’re following in the footsteps of their older brother, Christian, who is in his third year of medical school at the Whiddon College of Medicine.

“My dad never complained,” Nicholas says. “He showed me the value of not complaining about what you have to do and appreciating the opportunities you have.”

Nicholas’ long-term goal is to become a reconstructive plastic surgeon and serve as a medical missionary in Latin America. His father’s influence deepened that purpose.

“He didn’t push success on us,” he says of himself and his four siblings. “But he knew what we were capable of. Knowing
that he believed I could accomplish things motivated me. I want to fulfill what he thought about me.”