Home

Your True Story

Be an inspiration to others. Add your story to the more than 70 people profiled on 2young2retire.

Susan Cooper: Small Business
Owner to Real Estate Star

Small business-owner, doctoral candidate, adjunct-professor and business consultant, Susan Cooper, 63, has already lived more lives than a cat and sees no reason to stop. Her last career was selling real estate in one of the most competitive markets in the world, New York City, where she won the Rookie of the Year award from The Corcoran Group for record sales in her first year on the job. 

Susan may have started out in retailing at Macy’s (with a stint as Santa’s elf in the Thanksgiving Day Parade), but she would be the first to admit that her passion is environments: envisioning them, helping to build them (with her handy-man spouse, David).  She likes nothing more than putting on the hardhat someone gave her for her 40th birthday and striding through a construction site, talking shop with architects and developers.  Now the Coopers  have a new project: renovating a group of substandard rental properties they acquired on Cape Cod, and giving the low- to mid-income tenants an incentive to become first-time homeowners.

Back to School

She became interested in "how the physical environment affects people in the workplace" at the New School, where (a back-to-school student in her 40s) she completed a BA, immediately followed by an MA in Human Resource Management which she completed at age 50. She was allowed to do a ‘self-study’ course on this topic and ended up being hired as an adjunct professor in the graduate program teaching an Environmental Psychology course in the Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy.

"While I was teaching at the New School, I also began a communication courses for undergraduates at Cornell University in a special program supported by Chase, Avon and Mt. Sinai. This work was great! It was wonderful to teach adults (returning to college) basic concepts about communicating - with peers, children, significant others, bosses, and so on."

Concurrently, Susan helped found The New School’s Leadership Center, a consortium of faculty and consultants. This led to several consulting projects, "the most significant of which was a three-year stint at the NYC Department of Probation, working to re-invent the way probation is done in the 5 boroughs."

Before she went back to school, Susan had been the first woman owner of a courier service, and was appointed president of the Messenger Services Association. During the years of growing the business, she fought (and won) a battle with the US Postal Service to enable private messengers to do time-sensitive deliveries.

Along the way, Susan has also worked as a clerk for the Cocoa Exchange, counted "everything from plumbing parts to handkerchiefs" for The Inventory Company, and been perennial volunteer and dedicated band parent.

"What I’ve learned from these experiences is that there is very little I cannot do if I really want to. I like doing a really good job, being proud of myself. Success to me means doing something well, really learning something in depth. It means constantly learning and growing," she said. "I expect to be doing pretty much what I am doing now in the next 10 years, perhaps less time on real estate and more on volunteer work. When I’m 78, I don’t anticipate much change either. Can’t you still wear a hard hat at 78?"

Next Chapter

In Tucson, Arizona, where Susan and her husband, David, now live, she has added the title of 'professional volunteer' to her other accomplishments.  When she isn't renovating the wreck they bought on a whim, she volunteers "with a non-profit hospice at the Tucson Medical Center - working in the inpatient unit doing physical care and working with the volunteer coordinator on developing and improving training projects and implements."  She is also the volunteer community group coordinator for the Institute of Noetic Sciences (www.noetic.org) and has been working on growing this organization and on the development of its web site (www.ionstucson.org).  Recently, she contracted with a theatre to bring in 2 movies - The Phoenix Lights and What the Bleep!? Down the Rabbit Hole -  as fund raising projects.