John Cooper has long been the main advocate for the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, but he will no longer be its main face.
The 67-year-old chairman for the past 13 years officially stepped down from the role at the Niagara Military Affairs Council’s annual meeting last month. He has been replaced by vice-chairman Mike Zimmerman, a retired chief master sergeant from the Air Force and member of Starpoint Central School District’s Board of Education.
Cooper is still on NIMAC’s board of directors, planning to be involved as much as he can be. He told the board his plans to step down from the position last year so everyone would be prepared.
“I had been chairman for an extended period and felt that Zimmerman is the perfect fit to take over,” Cooper said. “I felt that now is a good time.”
A Niagara Falls native, Zimmerman had been with the Air Force for 33 years, retiring from service in 2020. He spent most of his career based at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, retiring as superintendent of the 914th Operations Group.
He joined NIMAC afterward, serving as its vice-chairman for the past three years.
The chairman is in charge of the Niagara Falls air base’s advocacy efforts, whether educating new leadership about the base or being aware of what needs changing and updating.
Cooper’s involvement with NIMAC goes back to its creation in 1995, working to prevent the air base’s threatened closure. The process involved making several trips to Washington D.C., educating local communities about the closure’s consequences, and getting more than 125,000 letters sent to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
The base faced threats of closure again in 2005, but NIMAC’s work prevented it again.
The air base is one of the county’s largest employers, responsible for around 3,000 jobs in military, civil service, and defense contract personnel with an estimated economic impact of around $200 million.
Cooper’s efforts were recognized by the Association of Defense Communities earlier this year, the first time he and the organization received any kind of national recognition for their work.