This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Correction: A story about the death of influential historian Everett Cooley incorrectly retold how a lost journal of Brigham Young came into the University of Utah's possession. A Wayne State University professor was offered $1 million to sell the journal. He refused, instead, giving the journal to Cooley.
Everett Cooley lived Utah history.
He relished accounts of the pioneer treks, the establishment of the territory and the push toward statehood. And he loved the land itself.
"I think he knew every inch of this state," said his daughter, Karen Milne, recalling family vacations that followed the pioneer trail.
Cooley died Saturday of natural causes at 88. He was considered one of the most influential historians Utah has ever seen.
He was the state's first archivist, in essence raiding closets and filing cabinets throughout the bureaucracy to create the state Archive. He also led the Utah State Historical Society and modernized the University of Utah's special collections.
Cooley could be considered a pioneer of Utah history as well, starting the U.'s oral history project, which houses hundreds of audio recordings of influential Utahns, many of whom he interviewed. He convinced state lawmakers to start recording their meetings in the early 1960s. And he was a founding member of the Utah Heritage Foundation, which protects historic buildings.
Fellow historian Will Bagley said Cooley was dedicated to bringing historic documents to the people.
Cooley edited and wrote the introduction to one of Brigham Young's lost journals, which covered parts of 1857. The journal of Young, who was an LDS president and Utah's first governor, was discovered in the papers of a Wayne State University collection. The professor was offered $1 million to sell the journal and instead gave it to Cooley.
As Cooley was leaving the Salt Lake City airport, he was approached by two separate individuals offering him $1 million for the short journal, according to Bagley. Cooley declined, later saying he couldn't live with himself if he had done anything else.
The Brigham Young journal covered the Mountain Meadows Massacre and part of the Utah War, but it turned out to be fairly dry, written by a son who acted as Young's scribe.
Cooley wrote in the introduction: "While the diary spans a very crucial period in Utah history, the absence of entries on very significant events is exasperating and disappointing. Nevertheless, this diary is the first of the several Brigham Young diaries to be made available to the reading public."
Cooley's daughters say their father would go on and on about Utah history, but his interests didn't stop there.
He loved classical music, ballet and opera. He was politically active, sending donations to the Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, ACLU and Planned Parenthood. And he was a World War II veteran who participated in four invasions in the Pacific theater.
Cooley grew up on a West Jordan farm and was the only member of his family to get a college degree. Milne said he would joke that he went to school to avoid the fields. It didn't work.
"He was a farmer in spite of it all," Milne said.
Cooley meticulously kept a garden, and just a few days before he died was making a list of new plants to buy.
His daughter said: "He was a man who could find beauty in one flower."
Everett Cooley
1917-2006