Thomas V. Cooper, born in 1893, was the grandson of Thomas Cooper, a prominent state senator and political leader, and the son of Frederick Cooper, a well known local justice and editor of the Delaware County American newspaper in Media. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1912, he became a decorated navy officer in both World War I and World War II, serving as a battleship, submarine, and cruiser commander. During World War II, he was a veteran of troop landings at Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. In August 1941, he commanded the destroyer task force that escorted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the battleship HMS Prince of Wales to the Atlantic Charter meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Placentia Bay in Newfoundland, Canada. Cooper retired in 1947, died in 1980, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His family home, a Queen Anne Style house built circa 1882 that he inherited from his father, still stands at 133 E. 5th Street in Media.