Paul Cooper
Former Lance Creek Man Died in Jap Prison Camp
Paul Cooper, formerly of Lance Creek, is a victim of a Japanese prison camp.
First-hand information of his illness and death was brought back to Wyoming by Elmer Christler of Cody, who was also a Jap prisoner for almost four years.
Both men were with construction companies on Wake Island when all were taken prisoners on December 23, 1941.
Mr. Cooper was production foreman for A. B. Cobb, in both the Lance Creek and Cut Bank oil fields prior to 1940, when he moved to Cody, Wyo., where he was rig builder until going to Wake, where he was powder man for Morrison-Knudson Construction Company.
He passed away November 5, 1944, in the prison hospital at Osaka. His body was cremated and the ashes placed in a box with his personal effects to be sent to his widow after the war.
Immediately surviving him are his wife and two daughters, Pauline, in the Cody High School, and Kathryn, attending the Wasatch Academy at Mt. Pleasant, Utah.