Bonnie Cooper, Neil Cooper's widow,*informed me today when I wrote them*that Neil had died in May.*His passing leaves me with great sadness.*He was 87,*a real gentleman with a great sense of humor.*He retired after a long career*with fire suppression in Idaho's forests. *

I knew Neil through the AMCA since the early '70s, and I suspect he was a member for long before that.* He may indeed have been one of the oldest surviving members, although others, such as Bob McLeod, might have been equally long term.* Like Bob, Neil had an encyclopedic knowledge of old bikes.* Bonnie and Neil were a fixture at AMCA rallies for many decades. *

Neil was 87 and died of bladder and kidney cancer, after a colon cancer operation failed to stop its spread. He had collected and often meticulously restored scores of exotic cycles, including an Indian Powerplus with just a few hundred miles on it and the only surviving, as best I know, Cleveland Four T-head.*Steve McQueen bought that from him at a meet in the southern San Joachim Valley in the late '70s, if memory serves.*He did not want to sell it, and it was the first time he showed it after completing its restoration.*

When Steve asked him if he would sell, he asked for what he thought was an absurd price: $20,000.*I think that Bud Ekins may have wound up with it after Steve's death. *

I'm copying Bonnie on this note so that you can get hold of her directly if you want to write a memorial piece about him. *

Frank Smith