Philanthropist, volunteer Martin Cooper earns Fernando Award

Oct. 20--Martin Cooper, a San Fernando Valley philanthropist and volunteer at non-profits for more than three decades, is the 56th receipt of the Fernando Award, considered the Academy Award for volunteerism is the community.

Cooper, 73, received the award Saturday evening during a black time dinner at the Globe Theater at Universal Studios Hollywood attended by more than 300 people.

He was selected from a field of nine nominees for the award that's been presented since 1959 by the Fernando Award Foundation Inc.

Cooper, who moved to the Valley in 1981, said that his parents stressed the importance of helping others at an early age. And later a famous British prime minister became an inspiration for this kind of endeavor. .

"I'm quite an aficionado of Winston Churchill and I've taken classes at Oxford (in) Cambridge on the history of Churchill and World War II and the British at the time and it was very interesting," Cooper said Sunday. "His motto was you make a living by what you get but you make a live by what you give."

He founded Cooper Communications, a marketing and consulting firm focused on strategic planning, marketing program development, public relations, community outreach and crisis management.

As his firm prospered so did his philanthropic and volunteer work. Cooper, 73 and an Encino resident, said that he spends about 20 hours a week volunteering.

One of his first endeavors was supporting the American Cancer Society. "I realized no matter how much I gave it would just be a small blip," he said.

So he established three guidelines.

"I wanted it to be focused on the San Fernando Valley, I wanted to do more than write a check and I wanted to see the results of my work," he said.

He is the founding president of the Jewish Home for the Aged in Reseda and has worked with Valley-based organizations by donating pro-bono marketing services as well as financial support.

He was nominated by the Boys & Girls Club on San Fernando Valley and New Horizons, a non-profit that helps people with special needs.

The eight other nominees were Paul Davis, a partner in Paul Davis & Alberta Bellisario Insurance Services; Susan Du Brin, a registered agent for West Valley Medical Partners; Steve Fazio, president and CEO of Fazio dry cleaners; Jacques Hay, owner of the trophy business Award Winners; Johnny Higginson, co-founder of Shadow Hills Riding Club; Sean McCarthy, executive recruiter and career consultant with Jackson McCarthy & Associates; schoolteacher Emily Roberts; and Realtor Mel Wilson.

Dennis Watsabaugh, president of the foundation board, would like to see more nominees in the coming years.

"It was a great group and they were all very well qualified. Everyone (nominee) is a winner and we are trying to give them the recognition they deserve," he said.

Cooper said that this award is really not goal of this kind of effort.

"I don't think anybody at any point does what they do because someone might give them a statuette," he said.

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