Our Veterans
In honor of those who served our country in the armed forces, this San Marino Tribune article continues a series of individual salutes to our courageous veterans.
By Mitch Lehman
Dick Cooper recently attended his 74th reunion of Manual Arts High School’s graduating Class of 1941. It was a year that still holds many memories for Cooper and his wife, Mary, who was at his side, as always.
“I was a freshman at Occidental College when Pearl Harbor was bombed,” said Cooper. “Four of us went down the next day and enlisted in the Marine Corps. I stayed in until 1946.”
Cooper, a candidate for Air Navigation School at Cherry Point, North Carolina, met Capt. Ray Heatherton, who, in civilian life, was the orchestra leader at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.
“Ray was writing a Marine Corps musical and he invited me to join a small gathering in a conference room,” Cooper recalls. “When we walked in the room, Ray announced he had asked another Californian to join the group. In the group was a former Philadelphia radio announcer, Carl Dozer, and two food service officers, Joe Sardi, and John Horn. They were related to the families of Sardi’s and the Horn and Hardart Restaurants in New York City. The fifth member was another Californian, movie celebrity Tyrone Power. We all became very close friends during my assignment at Cherry Point.”
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