Frank "Bill" Cooper walked from country roads into corporate offices, sometimes with nothing but a piece of cardboard as the sole of his shoe.

In 1934, a newly wed Mr. Cooper began his career walking door to door selling insurance in his native Butts County. Through promotions and surviving two company mergers, he retired at 67 as senior vice president of Sun Life Insurance Co.

Family photo (ENLARGE)

Frank 'Bill' Cooper organized the Christmas party for Meadowbrook Nursing Home for 33 years with the help of his wife, Neva Cooper, and his son, Bob Cooper, who played Santa Claus.

"He went door to door to sell and collect premiums, nickel and dime policies, life and health," said his son, Bob Cooper of Decatur. "He walked so many miles selling insurance until he had no soles left on his shoes. He would put cardboard in and keep selling."

Reared on a farm in Jackson, Mr. Cooper got his name Bill from filling quart jars with boll weevils picked off his family's cotton crop. His father paid the children 5 cents a jar, and the enterprising Mr. Cooper was up at daylight filling the most jars and earning the most money. His brothers and sisters began calling him Boll Weevil Bill, and the name stuck, his son explained. He was known in business as Bill and socially as Frank.

The funeral for Robert Franklin "Bill" Cooper, 95, of Decatur is 1 p.m. Tuesday at Briarlake Baptist Church. He died of congestive heart failure Sunday at DeKalb Medical Center. A.S. Turner & Sons is in charge of arrangements.

For the sheer pleasure of it, Mr. Cooper organized a nursing home Christmas party for 33 years. He arranged for the music, devotionals, prayers and the telling of the Christmas story. He bought thousands of items for gift bags filled with treats for 144 Meadowbrook Nursing Home residents. He brought in his son to play Santa Claus and distribute gift bags to bedridden residents who couldn't attend the party.

"He organized the whole thing, Frank did," said Pete Rector of Decatur, who helped fill the gift bags on the Ping-Pong table in Mr. Cooper's basement, then loaded them in his truck to deliver to the nursing home. "It was something he got a lot of pleasure out of."

When he gave up chairmanship of the Christmas party three years ago, Mr. Cooper continued to attend as a guest with his wife of 74 years and party planning partner, Neva Cooper. For 25 years, he managed the scholarship fund of his Business Men's Bible Class at Briarlake Baptist Church, ceding that about four years ago, Mr. Rector said.

The fund of a couple of hundred thousand dollars finances scholarships for four to eight seminary students a year, he said. Mr. Cooper handled the applications, background checks to confirm need and interviews of students, and he monitored their progress in school.

"He got their grades every quarter," his son said. "If they weren't making the grade, he would tell them they wouldn't get any more money. He would say, 'It's God's money, and we don't give it away.' He was tough."

Fishing was his relaxation. "He just loved it," said Mr. Rector, who was his fishing buddy, too. "He knew how to clean fish with a water hose. He would hold them by the tail with a pair of pliers and spray against the scales with a high pressure hose. He cleaned them as good as a scaling knife. He took the most fish home with him because he didn't mind cleaning them."

He could have fished forever. "When we went fishing, it wasn't him that wanted to go home," Mr. Rector said.

Survivors other than his wife and son include a sister, Ruby C. Crane of Jackson; four grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.