By Ashley McCarty
Adams Countian Bill Cooper, 85, of Cooper Key and Lock Service wields over 53 years in locksmithing.
Cooper was born in 1935, and is a native of Cherry Fork. In 1954, he graduated from Cherry Fork High School, before moving to San Antonio, Texas in January of 1955 to pursue a career in the Air Force. In the Air Force, he was employed in the Air Police and Security.
The catalyst which would lead him toward his eventual success as a locksmith occurred in 1957 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, performing the routine duties of his job.
“Part of our job was making sure that the bombs brought out of the bomb dumps — your atomic bombs that were put on the aircraft — were protected, and people kept away from them. We had three B-47’s that had atomic bombs on them, and we were on maneuvers of dropping the bombs, taking them out from under the airplane and putting them on the taxi-way to get ready to take back out to where the bomb dump was,” said Cooper.
Enroute to the bomb dump, Cooper was standing in the vehicle when the driver made a sharp turn.
“I was standing up in the back of it looking backwards, someone hollered at him, he made a fast turn and I was thrown off of the vehicle. I landed on my head and started having seizures on the taxi-way,” said Cooper.
Cooper would spend the next four months in the hospital recuperating. On Dec. 29, 1959, Cooper was honorably discharged as an Airmen First Class.
Cooper would return to Adams County, though due to the inability to find work because of his condition, went to Dayton to pursue employment. In Dayton, he worked as a route driver for Blossom Hill Dairy, in carpentry building homes and in laundry at the University of Dayton.
It wasn’t long, though, until the fateful — if not comical — call of locksmithing presented itself, and in a place one would least expect.
“I took my homeschooling through Little Falls, New Jersey. I had a book of matches, and it said on the back, “Be a Locksmith,” so I just signed it and sent it in and they sent me all of the material,” said Cooper.
The Veteran’s Administration paid for his schooling, and in 1965 at the age of 25, he began his coursework.
“They would send me so many locks to make keys for, locks that were tore apart and in pieces to put back together, and [I would] mail it back to them. If I would make a key that they didn’t like, they’d send it back and tell me it was unacceptable. Then you have to make a new key, send it back to them, and it has to work that lock that it’s made for,” said Cooper.
At that time, he did not use the modern machinery afforded today.
“When you made a key, you took a file, a key, and then you had to find the spacings and then file the depths in order to make that key work that lock,” he said.
It took Cooper 14 months to complete the schooling, and by 1968 he had accrued the knowledge to receive his diploma. In the meantime, Cooper had an opportunity to work at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a disabled veteran.
After working in the kitchen of the base hospital, he moved into the positions of dispatcher for priority supplies, a light vehicle operator, and warehousing.
In 1968, in Fairborn, Ohio, his locksmithing business would blossom — out of a van, and a shed.
“I had a van and we lived in a mobile home, so I asked the owner if I could put a bigger shed in the back and have a little shop back behind the mobile home,” he said.
Cooper would work evenings and weekends in the Fairborn, Springfield, and Dayton areas.
“I worked at Wright-Patterson through the day, and then after hours my wife would call me if she had any jobs, and I’d leave there and go out and go to work wherever it was. Sometimes it would be Fairborn, sometimes Dayton, Huber Heights, Springfield, or anywhere in between. I’d go out and re-key houses, unlock cars, all kinds of different things,” said Cooper.
On weekends, while visiting Adams County with wife, Maxine, he found himself coerced into the odd job or two.
In 1975, Cooper was offered the position of locksmith at Wright-Patterson. In 1977, he went to Satellite Beach, Florida, to attend Lockmasters Resident School, where he became certified in safe deposit box servicing, safe lock servicing, combination lock manipulation, drilling, and time locks.
“It’s like everything else, if you don’t use it, you don’t work with it, you lose it, and as far as the safes, opening them without knowing what the combination is — I’ve pretty well lost that,” he said, laughing.
The last five years before his retirement at Wright-Patterson, Cooper moved to the position of internal electrician, all the while continuing to sharpen his trade on the side. After 27 years at Wright-Patterson, Cooper returned to Adams County in May of 1990.
In 1990, he opened the full-time locksmith shop in Liberty Township. The small getaway home — which Cooper built himself for he and his wife to enjoy their weekends — was now the location of what would come to be his legacy.
Thirty years later, the foyer is lined with history, as antiquated locks and a plethora of fascinating mechanisms greet you at the door — a trove of treasures which can only serve to give one an inkling of the history Cooper himself has experienced.
Through his career, Cooper has made keys and worked on locks from boats, houses, airplanes, semi-trucks, dozers, and many more.
“I had a guy call me that wanted me to make a key for his Model A. I got out there, and I said, what kind of key is this? I found out it was a Yale one key, which is a house lock key, but it’s shorter, and it worked the tumblers in his car to make it run. That was sort of a surprising element there to find out that a Yale key would work an automobile, but I guess they had to start somewhere,” said Cooper.
Cooper has worked on over 50 types of locks, and is an encyclopedia of his industry, his knowledge only matched by the fascinating library of stories to accompany his wisdom. He can recount the evolution of the key with such a vivid memory that one can almost picture it, his words forming a film as he recites its history.
One could sit for hours and listen to him, enraptured by his seemingly endless amount of knowledge on the subject and the enchanting tales he weaves.
Though as with all legacies, old masters must make way for new ones, and luckily, Cooper can pass on his business to his niece, Betty Bryant.
“She’s been working with me for [10 years]. She does all of the outside work. I don’t do drilling on safes or installing deadbolts or knob locks [anymore]. I did that for years, but arthritis [and age] will catch up to you. I’m semi-retired now, I’m just going to shift out. As far as I’m concerned, she’s already taken over. This year will probably be my last year — of course I said that last year — but it will be my last year as far as going out and doing any work. If you come in here and you want a key made, I’ll make it for you,” he said, laughing.
One would be honored to be invited into his office, sit in his comfy chair, and listen to his stories.
“I want to thank everybody for their patronage. I’ve gotten to talk to a lot of wonderful people, we get to do prayer together, we get to do a lot of things and talk about a lot of stuff. I love it here,” he said.