Tom Cooper Articles

A little known but important figure in the formative years of the automobile and motorsport is a gentleman by the name of Tom Cooper. He was a business partner of Henry Ford prior to the latter's formation of Ford Motor Company, a bicycle champion, race driver and sidekick to Barney Oldfield. His death came at the wheel of a Matheson touring car when he was street racing another vehicle, a Thomas, after dark. They were on a street adjacent to New York's Central Park.
 
Note that the attachment, Tom Cooper Obit, is from the New York Times. It is the more accurate of the two obituaries and calls to light the erroneous reporting originally presented in the first articles about the circumstances of his death. Instead of hitting a parked car, as was first believed, Cooper was apparently racing the driver of another vehicle when the two touched wheels. That induced a blowout of one of Cooper's tires and a resulting accident threw him and other passengers from the Matheson car he was driving at the time. Cooper reportedly suffered a broken neck and died instantly. Two of the people riding with him were women and another a well-to-do businessman.