Statement on the death of Mike Cooley
Date: Fri 4th Sep, 2020 | 22:46
In a statement, President Higgins said that he had heard with great sorrow of the passing of one of the finest Irish scientists, Dr. Mike Cooley.
President Higgins, who wrote the foreword for Prof. Cooley’s work, ‘Delinquent Genius: The Strange Affair of Man and His Technology’, said:
“Mike Cooley, in his books, including ‘Architect or Bee?’, and in all his life, was deeply committed to the delivery of science and technology for universal benefit.
Driven by his views on the importance of work as a human activity, in his rich life he served as a shop steward, and pioneered the concept of skills audits in response to factory closures. I was pleased to draw on his advice and services on the closure of Digital Equipment Cooperation in the 1990s.
His closest friends from Tuam were the late playwright Tom Murphy and trade unionist Mick Brennan.
In a significant gesture, his library was donated to the Waterford Institute of Technology and next year a centre for science excellence will be built around his work.
His life was one of deep commitment to the importance of the person, in every type of work, and to the trade union movement’s important role in advancing these aims.
Those of us who were his personal friends will miss him deeply, but are proud of his outstanding contribution.”