Keith Cooperrider

Keith Cooperrider was born on 2 April 1947 in Berkeley, California, to Rose Mary Ashman and Vern Cooperrider, and was raised in Seattle alongside one brother, two sisters, and four foster siblings. A bright, methodical boy with a head for numbers and a love of the natural world, he made his way south to Portland for college, graduating from Lewis and Clark College in 1969 with degrees in math and physics. There he joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon, the fraternity he proudly called 'the bridge fraternity.'

In the summer of 1969, Keith set off in his Volkswagen Bug to wander the United States and Mexico. He had every intention of returning to Portland; he never did. In Los Angeles, a young witness named Lisa Take and her friend Barbara Reem approached him at the Griffith Park planetarium, and he later admitted he found them 'weird, but harmless.' That conversation led him to a centre on Virgil Avenue, where John Shuhart taught him the Divine Principle over an intensive week. He accepted everything, drove east, and in the summer of 1970 settled at Upshur House in Washington, D.C., joining the Unification Church for the rest of his life.

After two years at NASA on the Landsat Project — work he revisited fondly at the Air and Space Museum — Keith became executive assistant to the president of the Unification Church's national headquarters in 1972. Through the 1970s he managed the church's expansion into all fifty states and shepherded the purchase of the New Yorker Hotel, the Manhattan Center, and the 43rd Street property, sleeping in a sleeping bag by the front door of the empty 43rd Street building the night it was acquired, guarding it under a single forty-five-watt bulb.

In 1975 he married Sarah Sack. Their sons Kenner and Kenzie were born in New York, and their daughter Kara in Washington. In 1982 Keith joined The Washington Times as controller, rising to chief financial officer and serving for 33 years until brain tumor surgery forced him to step down in 2015. Colleagues remembered his index cards, his spreadsheets, the Bible and Divine Principle on his credenza, and the tender, intimate sound of his prayers.

Keith hiked part of the Pacific Crest Trail in his mid-fifties with two of his children, and called a night at Clear Lake under the stars one of the best of his life. With Sarah he remodeled kitchens and whole homes, and together they funded the Viral DP Project to make the Divine Principle short, clear, and digital.

After a four-year battle with brain cancer, Keith died on 27 June 2019 at 2 a.m., surrounded by Sarah and their three children. He left two grandchildren, Ash and Owen, and a legacy of competence, calm, humility, and unwavering faith.