Even as a graduate of Baylor University, Joycelyn “Joy” Cooper still considers the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine an important part of her life. As a young girl, Joy moved to College Station in the early 1950s when her father, Dr. O.C. Cooper, came to the area as a family practice physician. Now more than 50 years later, Joy, Dr. Cooper, and his friends and family continue to leave a remarkable legacy at the College of Medicine.

As founder of the preceptorship program for third- and fourth-year students at the College of Medicine in 1979, Dr. Cooper fostered the development of young future physicians by bringing them right to patients’ bedsides as early in their medical education as possible. As a result, the preceptorship program at the College of Medicine was one of the first programs of its kind in the country.

Throughout the program, the physician-preceptors mentor and teach students, allowing  the students to work in offices and at the bedside as they learn how to interact with, diagnose and treat patients. 

Officially named the O.C. Cooper Preceptorship Program after Dr. Cooper passed away in March 2003, today more than 100 students and 140 physicians participate in the program in College Station, Round Rock and Temple.With the thoughtful guidance and tireless commitment of the doctors and staff of the College of Medicine, those numbers continue to increase each year.

“This important program not only benefits the medical students, but enables physicians in the communities to pass on their knowledge and experience,” said Joy. “My father had a passion for ensuring that others would follow in his footsteps and find their calling to become compassionate and caring physicians.”

In addition to the preceptorship program, the Dr. and Mrs. O.C. Cooper Memorial Scholarship Fund was established by Dr. Robert Jones, a long-time colleague and friend, to honor Dr. Cooper in 1989. This fund continues to receive donations from many of Dr. Cooper’s past patients, family members and friends, including Joy Cooper herself.

Now as an employee of Texas A&M University, Joy gives back to the fund started in her father’s name “to support the College of Medicine in order to continue the work that he began.”

“I am blessed to be able to share what I have with others, and I hope that my donations to this scholarship fund will enable future doctors to have the same impact on their patients that my father had,” she said. “I felt it was important to continue to make contributions to this scholarship fund in order to help future doctors get the education they need, and to help continue my father’s legacy.”