David J. Cooper Sr. has spent a lifetime making other people feel welcome. As a third-generation leader of one of Mobile’s best-known maritime families, a Carnival leader, the man behind the city’s Ruth’s Chris Steak House and a veteran of 27 civic and corporate boards, he built a reputation as one of the Gulf Coast’s great hosts. Now David Cooper has added another title: author. His novel, “Laundry Man, The Life and Times of William Beauregard Butler, Jr.,” is a lively tale of a fictional Mississippi family that draws on Cooper’s own experiences growing up Southern.
A Novel Rooted in Real Life
The book’s title nods to a real chapter of Cooper’s life. As a student at the University of Alabama, he ran a college laundry business that he “bought” from his older brother, Angus Cooper. To this day, David says, Angus claims he was never paid, and the brothers have had plenty of fun with that over the years.
Readers who know Cooper will recognize people, places and events throughout the story, which winds through a life of sports, college and fraternity days, career, marriage and children. Mardi Gras, hunting tales and the building of a career all figure prominently, and the story takes some unexpected twists and turns that can hit close to home.
Storytelling is nothing new for Cooper. He is known for the weekly newsletter columns he writes for members of The Supper Club at Sweetwater Branch in Point Clear, one of the Cooper Group’s restaurant operations. The family’s restaurant portfolio also includes Felix’s Fish Camp and The BLUEGILL Restaurant on the Mobile Causeway, as well as Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Mobile.
A Crooner at Heart
Long before he became a businessman, Cooper was a performer. He had a band in high school and often played CYO parties for $30. In college, he sang with the Alabama Cavaliers, a student singing group, and he also played with a dance band alongside the likes of Lester Lanin, the famed society bandleader whose orchestra was the house band at New York’s Hotel St. Moritz, now the Ritz-Carlton in Midtown Manhattan. During high school, he spent a couple of summers interning at Howard Barney Advertising in Mobile, an early taste of the marketing work that would define his career.
From the Docks to Business Development
David and Angus represented the third generation to run the family stevedoring business, and under their leadership, Cooper Stevedoring grew tremendously. As the company expanded, it merged with a long-established family stevedoring firm in New Orleans and became Cooper/T. Smith. As new businesses were formed, the name changed again to The Cooper Group, Inc., reflecting its worldwide operations.
Stevedoring, the work of loading and unloading ships, has been central to the Port of Mobile’s economy for generations, and the Cooper name has long been part of the city’s industrial waterfront.
Yet David’s path to the family business was not a straight line. In addition to his college laundry venture, he ran several other businesses in Tuscaloosa and thought the college town might become his permanent home. He eventually returned to Mobile and joined the company, only to realize that working on the docks wasn’t his thing.
That’s when his marketing and business development skills took over. He designed the simple company logo that, with slight modifications over the years, is still in use today. And his eye for detail grew into one of the most impressive corporate and client entertainment operations anyone around him had ever seen.
Entertaining on a Grand Scale
The Cooper approach to hospitality became legendary. The company hosted client events at Grand Central Station in New York, flying in its chefs and Gulf Coast seafood. It invited customers to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, not just to watch, but to ride as masked participants on floats the company had built. It also had a camp barge built for duck hunting and fishing in Lake Charles and Venice, Louisiana.
Cooper’s attention to detail extended to Mobile’s own Carnival. As president of the Mobile Carnival Association, the organization that has presided over the city’s King Felix and Carnival royalty for well over a century, he made many important decisions. He envisioned and developed the corner of Broad and Dauphin streets into a coveted parade-viewing area and made it the home of the Infant Mystics’ den and float barn. The Infant Mystics, founded in 1868, is one of Mobile’s oldest mystic societies.
How the Coopers Ended Up Owning Ruth’s Chris
The restaurant business came almost by accident. “We took customers to the original Ruth’s Chris Steak House in New Orleans and I became good friends with Ruth Fertel, the owner,” Cooper said. “Ruth’s Chris opened in Mobile when they began franchising. We weren’t the original owners and they were about to close the Mobile location in 1997. I didn’t want to see it close and went to see Ruth about keeping it open.”
Fertel’s own story is a New Orleans legend. In 1965, she mortgaged her home to buy a small steakhouse called Chris Steak House, and after a fire forced a move in the 1970s, she reopened as Ruth’s Chris Steak House. Her restaurant, known for steaks served sizzling in butter, grew into a national chain through franchising, which is how the brand eventually reached Mobile.
A deal was struck, and suddenly the Coopers were restaurateurs. “When I called Angus I said, ‘Guess what, we now own Ruth’s Chris.’ He asked, ‘How much are we going to lose?'” David recalled. His answer: “I don’t know, but you own half!”
By 1999, Ruth’s Chris Mobile had won a host of national awards. Cooper made sure the Mobile location stood apart. “We do lots of things that other Ruth’s Chris don’t do,” he said. “We still have white starched coats for our servers and created the ‘Chrissie’ (a delicious ice cream after-dinner dessert drink) that none of the other Ruth’s Chris serve. We acquired Constantine’s Restaurant’s recipes, considered the best restaurant in Mobile in our youth, and brought them back.”
One story captures his philosophy. A prominent Mobile woman is always greeted at the door with her Scotch on the rocks. When a server once asked what would happen if she didn’t want a Scotch, Cooper’s answer was simple: “Then throw it out.” Asked whether the drink met her satisfaction, the guest replied, “It’s perfect!”
A Board Member Who Walked the Halls at 3 a.m.
Cooper has served on 27 civic and corporate boards. “In the 70s, there was a desire for boards to add younger people, and I benefited from that,” he said. Among them was the Board of Visitors of the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, where he was known for being available and taking his role seriously.
As chairman of the Infirmary Health board, he was known to walk the hospital halls at 3 a.m. to see how patients were being cared for. “How you treat patients, who really are your customers, when no one is looking, is important,” he said. “I wanted to see if the staff were filling ice buckets and emptying trash cans in the middle of the night.”
Lessons From a Life of Hospitality
Cooper credits his relationship with Angus to one simple rule: they never keep score. If the company lost a customer, the brothers would travel across the globe to thank them for their business. “You have to be willing to inconvenience yourself,” he said.
He is quick to credit those who helped him along the way. “Arthur Outlaw took me under his wing when he was mayor and got me involved in so many things. Mardi Gras has been good to me, it’s opened doors. My friends from college are still close friends.”
His keys to success are refreshingly direct:
- “Don’t take yourself too seriously.”
- “Have respect and self-confidence.”
- “Most successful people are truly humble people.”
- “You can find something good in everyone if you take the time to invest in them.”
“I’ve had such a varied life and I love people from all walks of life,” he added.
Honors, Family and the Next Generation
At 78 at the time of a January 2024 interview, Cooper remained active in Mobile, Point Clear and Cashiers, North Carolina. He has been inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame and the Alabama Academy of Honor, and the University of Alabama presented him with its Transportation Award.
The brothers have passed day-to-day management of The Cooper Group to the next generation. Angus serves as chairman and David as vice chairman of the board. David and Joanne, his wife of 50 years, are enjoying life to the fullest.
“Laundry Man, The Life and Times of William Beauregard Butler, Jr.” is available at local specialty shops and at the restaurants in the Cooper Restaurant Group. For a man who has spent decades showing others how to be a gracious host, it is fitting that he has now, quite literally, written the book.