Robert L. Cooley

Robert Lawrence Cooley, born in Waubeka, Wisconsin, was an American educator. He spent his early life on a farm and working in his father's lumber mill and wagon factory. He graduated from the state normal school at Oshkosh (1894), and spent the years 1895-1903 as teacher, school principal, superintendent, and clerk of the school board at Oconto. In 1903 he moved to Milwaukee as an elementary school principal. His experience won him the appointment of first director of the Milwaukee Vocational School (1912) and he continued in this position until resigning in 1940. Under his management, the school acquired world-wide fame. He maintained that learning while earning could furnish training essential to persons preparing for trade, commerce, or industry, and that the curricula and faculty should be quickly adjustable to such needs. He was president of the Wisconsin Educational Association (1928) and the American Vocational Association (1928-1929). He received many civic and academic honors, and was the author of advisory reports and articles on vocational education.

Source: Wisconsin Historical Society