The Donald Cooney Collection
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of seven legal size boxes and one map case folder. The documents in boxes range from standard letter size to standard legal size. His work with student organizations is represented by a bulk of this collection's contents. These documents include flyers, newspaper clippings, correspondence, posters, essays, photographs, articles, and petitions. The date range for these materials is roughly the 1950s to 2010s.
Dates
- Creation: 1950-2019
Creator
- Cooney, Donald F., 1937- (Person)
Biographical / Historical
Donald (Don) Cooney began his career at Western Michigan University in 1977 as a Professor in the School of Social Work. In 1997 Cooney became County Commissioner of Kalamazoo. As of September 2025, Cooney served 11 terms as City Commissioner and 2 terms as Vice Mayor of Kalamazoo. Beginning with his B.A. from Mary Immaculate College and Seminary, Cooney has 4 degrees, The B.A., a M. Div. from Mary Immaculate College and Seminar, a M.A. from Fordham University, and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. Cooney is an advocate for social justice and uses his education and knowledge of politics to fight against institutional inequality and prejudice both on and off campus. Included in his employment at WMU, Cooney worked with campus activist organizations. Cooney helped start programs such as the Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo program and served as a faculty advisor to SASO II.
Partial Extent
7 boxes
Partial Extent
1 folders
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection consists of seven boxes and one folder donated by Donald (Don) Cooney who taught in Western Michigan University's School of Social Work from 1977 to 2025.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Donald (Don) Cooney.
Physical Description
Most of the documents are in fair condition, although several items such as newspaper clippings and posters have been folded making them more fragile.
- Title
- The Donald Cooney Collection Finding Aid
- Author
- John Winchell, Mallory Heslinger
- Date
- 2025-07-09
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Western Michigan University Archives & Regional History Collections Repository
Charles C. and Lynn L. Zhang Legacy Collections Center
1650 Oakland Drive
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5307 US
(269) 387-8490
arch-collect@wmich.edu