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Industry Icon Ed Cooper
Dies
Dies
PolyJohn Founder Ed Cooper
Named 'MZ Andy Gump Award'
recipient
Named 'MZ Andy Gump Award'
recipient
By Carol Brzozowski
| Mr. Ed Cooper |
When it was announced that his father was the recipient of the prestigious
“M.Z. Andy Gump” award during the October meeting of the Portable
Sanitation Association International (PSAI), Mike Cooper was in tears as
he accepted the award on his father’s behalf.
Ed Cooper, president of PolyJohn Enterprises in Whiting, Indiana was not
at the Tacoma, Washington meeting to receive his award. The 67-year-old
passed away October 29 after a long battle with cancer. Before he passed
away, he was told he’d received the award.
The M.Z. Andy Gump Award would not be the first time Ed Cooper’s peers
have honored him. Just two years ago, he was named the second recipient
of Sanitation Journal’s “Person of the Year” award.
Honesty and integrity were among the many qualities attributed to Cooper.
His concern for others’ well-being and his fairness was a hallmark of the
way he did business, notes Todd Boyd, president of J & J Chemicals.
Early in his career, Boyd met Cooper at industry trade shows. Cooper
helped boost Boyd’s company by recommending J & J’s products, which
“M.Z. Andy Gump” award during the October meeting of the Portable
Sanitation Association International (PSAI), Mike Cooper was in tears as
he accepted the award on his father’s behalf.
Ed Cooper, president of PolyJohn Enterprises in Whiting, Indiana was not
at the Tacoma, Washington meeting to receive his award. The 67-year-old
passed away October 29 after a long battle with cancer. Before he passed
away, he was told he’d received the award.
The M.Z. Andy Gump Award would not be the first time Ed Cooper’s peers
have honored him. Just two years ago, he was named the second recipient
of Sanitation Journal’s “Person of the Year” award.
Honesty and integrity were among the many qualities attributed to Cooper.
His concern for others’ well-being and his fairness was a hallmark of the
way he did business, notes Todd Boyd, president of J & J Chemicals.
Early in his career, Boyd met Cooper at industry trade shows. Cooper
helped boost Boyd’s company by recommending J & J’s products, which
Boyd acknowledges helped his company “a great deal”.
Mike Cooper, now president of PolyJohn, says one of his father’s greatest contributions to the industry is that he indeed
“helped a lot of people make a lot of money”. He also has provided a livelihood for more than 200 people worldwide who
work for PolyJohn.
A recommendation from Ed Cooper could have catapulted any portable sanitation business endeavor like a book
recommendation from Oprah. Under Ed Cooper’s guidance, PolyJohn has become a global leader in polyethylene portable
sanitation products manufacturing.
A determined Cooper had put in the sweat time to get there. He and his brother-in-law George Hiskes, along with George
Harding, started PolyJohn after purchasing Rama Plastics, a plastics manufacturing company on an Indian reservation in
Canada. They began manufacturing PolyJohn portable sanitation units.
Harding had been issued the first U.S. patent for a polyethylene plastic portable restroom. Cooper had been running a
waste-hauling business in Hammond, Indiana when the two met.
Mike Cooper’s brother Kenneth also works in the business and they have a sister, Wendy. Their mother Sandra had been
married to their father for 46 years.
According to Boyd, Ed Cooper’s greatest contribution to the sanitation industry was that he was a “very hard-working man
and driven always to do better, whether in production, innovation or customer service.
“What Ed accomplished at PolyJohn and the kind of company it is today is incredible,” says Boyd. “I very much admired
him and the company he built.”
So too did Barry Gump, for whose father the award is named. Gump is president and CEO of Andy Gump in Mission Hills,
California.
Mike Cooper says Gump also had tears in his eyes when the award was announced at the PSAI convention and a few days
later, was at the Cooper family’s side for Ed Cooper’s funeral.
“I’m particular about the award that carries my father’s name,” says Gump. “It’s the crowning recognition of all Ed
dedicated himself to in his business and this industry. His investment in this industry is almost unmatched. He and his
company have always been trying to improve this industry.”
Gump regards Ed Cooper as one of the industry’s ‘icons’.
In his nomination letter to the PSAI, he wrote: “The time has come for the Portable Sanitation Association International to
recognize the meaningful contributions to our industry by Mr. Ed Cooper.”
Giving a nod to the caliber of the 14 individuals who had received the award since its inception, Gump noted that it seemed
“impossible” to him that Cooper had not yet received the award.
“It has been my privilege and honor to personally know Ed Cooper for many years and serve alongside him on the PSAI
Board of Directors,” Gump wrote. “His determination, dedication, inventiveness, leadership and loyalty to the portable
sanitation industry are to be commended.
“His loyalty and effort to the PSAI are further enhanced through the dedication of his company and entire staff. They
believe in and promote PSAI membership and involvement at every opportunity.”
Gump pointed out that Cooper’s “exemplary dedication” to the industry had met and exceeded all criteria of the award.
“He always conducts business and personal relationships with fairness and integrity,” wrote Gump. “He is constantly
striving to improve our industry image in the business and public sectors and continues to introduce innovate approaches
to portable sanitation needs.”
Gump credited Cooper relentlessly creating new products, services and related technology. Son Mike Cooper says his
father succeeded in making PolyJohn what it is today because he surrounded himself with competent people in whom he
invested his trust.
“Ed is untiring in leading colleagues in the advancement of the portable sanitation industry, while always exhibiting vision
in responding to the economic and environmental challenges facing our industry,” Gump wrote.
Ed Cooper’s award and death drew reactions from throughout the industry.
Saddened by Ed Cooper’s death, T. Douglas Pierson, president of the Pierson Comfort Group in Federalsburg, Maryland,
commented that while his company has purchased units from nearly every portable sanitation manufacturer throughout its
four decades, the company 20 years ago committed itself to PolyJohn after Pierson met Ed Cooper.
“After meeting Ed and looking at the way he treated his employees, family and friends, we have stayed with (PolyJohn)
ever since,” Pierson says. “He had a way of making you feel very special. If you were a start-up guy or had a large
company, both got the same treatment.”
Pierson credited the growth of the PSAI to people like Ed Cooper.
“I hope in the future we can have an ‘Ed Cooper Award’, he adds.
Mike Cooper says he started working in the family business about 15 years ago, coming out of the solid waste business
where he worked with an uncle and a few of his father’s cousins.
Some of the benefits of working with his father focused on being in the loop on all of the business decisions and why they’
re made, Mike Cooper notes.
“There’s always somebody there to teach you so you can learn,” he says.
But being in a family business also has meant the challenge of meshing it with one’s personal life.
“You are in business all of the time: vacations, Christmas, Thanksgiving…” adds Mike Cooper. “You’re talking business all
of the time. Some of us would take off time, but someone had to stay behind to take care of it.”
His father had such dedication to the business, Mike Cooper notes.
“He loved it,” Mike Cooper says. “Even when he was sick, he felt bad because he couldn’t get to work. My Mom would
drive him down to work sometimes and he’d sit in his office for half a day just to find out what was happening.”
Ed Cooper had planned to retire before getting sick three years ago. When he had turned 65, he started the wheels rolling
for the family business succession plan.
“He started dumping more responsibility and decision-making on us,” Mike Cooper says.
The biggest lesson Mike Cooper takes from his father in conducting business is based on the Golden Rule – to treat others
as you yourself would want to be treated.
“He always told me, ‘Promise them everything…and deliver it,” Mike Cooper says. “We make sure even if there is a
problem that we always back up our products - whatever we’ve got to do to make a customer happy.
“We’re getting to be a pretty big business, but we’re still small enough that if something happens, I can walk back and
straighten it out.”
He learned that from his father as well.
“He kicked butts when they needed kickin’, but the customer comes first. You take care of the customer - they’re the ones
paying the bills,” Mike Cooper says. “Everybody here loved him.”
Ed Cooper epitomized the American entrepreneur – while he barely made it through high school, his son Mike notes, he
embraced a strong work ethic.
“He always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Mike Cooper. “He started out landscaping and then started driving steel
trucks and then worked on a garbage truck for awhile and bought his first route when the owner retired and took off from
there.”
Mike Cooper says another one his father’s greatest contributions to the industry was being innovative.
“He was always pushing for the new products - what can we do to make our products better,” he says. “Instead of waiting
for customers to ask for something, he’d ask the customers what they think they‘re going to need and we’d start working
on it.
“We’ve always tried to come up with new and exciting things,” Mike Cooper says. “When we came out with the Fleet unit,
it was the first oversized unit and everybody is copying now.”
Mike Cooper notes that sanitation industry is “great because it is still small enough to where you pretty much know
everybody and it’s fun. People are nice; they‘re genuine. My Dad loved going to the shows, having a couple of beers with
some of these guys and hear their stories and they’d laugh. He was the master.”
Mike Cooper, now president of PolyJohn, says one of his father’s greatest contributions to the industry is that he indeed
“helped a lot of people make a lot of money”. He also has provided a livelihood for more than 200 people worldwide who
work for PolyJohn.
A recommendation from Ed Cooper could have catapulted any portable sanitation business endeavor like a book
recommendation from Oprah. Under Ed Cooper’s guidance, PolyJohn has become a global leader in polyethylene portable
sanitation products manufacturing.
A determined Cooper had put in the sweat time to get there. He and his brother-in-law George Hiskes, along with George
Harding, started PolyJohn after purchasing Rama Plastics, a plastics manufacturing company on an Indian reservation in
Canada. They began manufacturing PolyJohn portable sanitation units.
Harding had been issued the first U.S. patent for a polyethylene plastic portable restroom. Cooper had been running a
waste-hauling business in Hammond, Indiana when the two met.
Mike Cooper’s brother Kenneth also works in the business and they have a sister, Wendy. Their mother Sandra had been
married to their father for 46 years.
According to Boyd, Ed Cooper’s greatest contribution to the sanitation industry was that he was a “very hard-working man
and driven always to do better, whether in production, innovation or customer service.
“What Ed accomplished at PolyJohn and the kind of company it is today is incredible,” says Boyd. “I very much admired
him and the company he built.”
So too did Barry Gump, for whose father the award is named. Gump is president and CEO of Andy Gump in Mission Hills,
California.
Mike Cooper says Gump also had tears in his eyes when the award was announced at the PSAI convention and a few days
later, was at the Cooper family’s side for Ed Cooper’s funeral.
“I’m particular about the award that carries my father’s name,” says Gump. “It’s the crowning recognition of all Ed
dedicated himself to in his business and this industry. His investment in this industry is almost unmatched. He and his
company have always been trying to improve this industry.”
Gump regards Ed Cooper as one of the industry’s ‘icons’.
In his nomination letter to the PSAI, he wrote: “The time has come for the Portable Sanitation Association International to
recognize the meaningful contributions to our industry by Mr. Ed Cooper.”
Giving a nod to the caliber of the 14 individuals who had received the award since its inception, Gump noted that it seemed
“impossible” to him that Cooper had not yet received the award.
“It has been my privilege and honor to personally know Ed Cooper for many years and serve alongside him on the PSAI
Board of Directors,” Gump wrote. “His determination, dedication, inventiveness, leadership and loyalty to the portable
sanitation industry are to be commended.
“His loyalty and effort to the PSAI are further enhanced through the dedication of his company and entire staff. They
believe in and promote PSAI membership and involvement at every opportunity.”
Gump pointed out that Cooper’s “exemplary dedication” to the industry had met and exceeded all criteria of the award.
“He always conducts business and personal relationships with fairness and integrity,” wrote Gump. “He is constantly
striving to improve our industry image in the business and public sectors and continues to introduce innovate approaches
to portable sanitation needs.”
Gump credited Cooper relentlessly creating new products, services and related technology. Son Mike Cooper says his
father succeeded in making PolyJohn what it is today because he surrounded himself with competent people in whom he
invested his trust.
“Ed is untiring in leading colleagues in the advancement of the portable sanitation industry, while always exhibiting vision
in responding to the economic and environmental challenges facing our industry,” Gump wrote.
Ed Cooper’s award and death drew reactions from throughout the industry.
Saddened by Ed Cooper’s death, T. Douglas Pierson, president of the Pierson Comfort Group in Federalsburg, Maryland,
commented that while his company has purchased units from nearly every portable sanitation manufacturer throughout its
four decades, the company 20 years ago committed itself to PolyJohn after Pierson met Ed Cooper.
“After meeting Ed and looking at the way he treated his employees, family and friends, we have stayed with (PolyJohn)
ever since,” Pierson says. “He had a way of making you feel very special. If you were a start-up guy or had a large
company, both got the same treatment.”
Pierson credited the growth of the PSAI to people like Ed Cooper.
“I hope in the future we can have an ‘Ed Cooper Award’, he adds.
Mike Cooper says he started working in the family business about 15 years ago, coming out of the solid waste business
where he worked with an uncle and a few of his father’s cousins.
Some of the benefits of working with his father focused on being in the loop on all of the business decisions and why they’
re made, Mike Cooper notes.
“There’s always somebody there to teach you so you can learn,” he says.
But being in a family business also has meant the challenge of meshing it with one’s personal life.
“You are in business all of the time: vacations, Christmas, Thanksgiving…” adds Mike Cooper. “You’re talking business all
of the time. Some of us would take off time, but someone had to stay behind to take care of it.”
His father had such dedication to the business, Mike Cooper notes.
“He loved it,” Mike Cooper says. “Even when he was sick, he felt bad because he couldn’t get to work. My Mom would
drive him down to work sometimes and he’d sit in his office for half a day just to find out what was happening.”
Ed Cooper had planned to retire before getting sick three years ago. When he had turned 65, he started the wheels rolling
for the family business succession plan.
“He started dumping more responsibility and decision-making on us,” Mike Cooper says.
The biggest lesson Mike Cooper takes from his father in conducting business is based on the Golden Rule – to treat others
as you yourself would want to be treated.
“He always told me, ‘Promise them everything…and deliver it,” Mike Cooper says. “We make sure even if there is a
problem that we always back up our products - whatever we’ve got to do to make a customer happy.
“We’re getting to be a pretty big business, but we’re still small enough that if something happens, I can walk back and
straighten it out.”
He learned that from his father as well.
“He kicked butts when they needed kickin’, but the customer comes first. You take care of the customer - they’re the ones
paying the bills,” Mike Cooper says. “Everybody here loved him.”
Ed Cooper epitomized the American entrepreneur – while he barely made it through high school, his son Mike notes, he
embraced a strong work ethic.
“He always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Mike Cooper. “He started out landscaping and then started driving steel
trucks and then worked on a garbage truck for awhile and bought his first route when the owner retired and took off from
there.”
Mike Cooper says another one his father’s greatest contributions to the industry was being innovative.
“He was always pushing for the new products - what can we do to make our products better,” he says. “Instead of waiting
for customers to ask for something, he’d ask the customers what they think they‘re going to need and we’d start working
on it.
“We’ve always tried to come up with new and exciting things,” Mike Cooper says. “When we came out with the Fleet unit,
it was the first oversized unit and everybody is copying now.”
Mike Cooper notes that sanitation industry is “great because it is still small enough to where you pretty much know
everybody and it’s fun. People are nice; they‘re genuine. My Dad loved going to the shows, having a couple of beers with
some of these guys and hear their stories and they’d laugh. He was the master.”
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