Theos-Talk Archives (September 2007 Message tt00065)

Bon Voyage to a great soul! She will be missed but she'll be back!

Adelasie

On 6 Sep 2007 at 11:25, gregory@zeta.org.au wrote:

> Shirley Cooper, the widow of the eminent Theosophical historian, John
> Cooper, died recently.
> 
> Historians of Theosophy of this generation and generations to come owe a
> debt to her that will inevitably remain largely unknown and unrecognized.
> 
> She was the loving support enabling John´s theosophical history research,
> and the practical and well-grounded touchstone that kept John´s feet
> firmly planted in the real world. After John´s death she meticulously
> preserved his library and archives, and with an extraordinary generosity
> and concern for future scholarship donated them to the National Library of
> Australia, ensuring that they will be preserved and protected, and be
> accessible to future generations of researchers.
> 
> Shirley dealt with the madness and malevolence of the many Theosophical
> extremists who invaded her life with generosity, grace and good humour. In
> the period immediately following John´s death, her pain and sadness was
> exacerbated by attempts by one Theosophical organization to bully and
> intimidate her as it sought to misappropriate John´s work on the
> correspondence of Madame Blavatsky. One individual, apparently lacking
> morals, manhood or basic human decency, particularly harassed her. Yet
> Shirley seemed incapable of anger, even in her distress. She was, rather,
> saddened that anyone could behave in such a way, and could not understand
> why some others, supposedly friends of John, failed to intervene.
> 
> Shirley´s unassuming and entirely unpretentious nature often meant that
> her inner strength and depth of insight went unrecognized. She was an
> accomplished artist in pottery and weaving, an energetic worker in the
> community in which she lived, and, after John´s death, a hard-working
> farmer. Shirley embodied all the theosophical virtues, while being
> disinterested in any theosophical doctrines
> 
> Dr Gregory Tillett
> 
> 
>