Jane Cooper Fall

Dover - Jane Cooper Fall, 94, of Rochester NH, passed away unexpectedly on Oct 18th 2018. She was born in Rochester to Burt Randall and Lillian Foss Cooper and was a graduate of Spaulding High School in 1942. She graduated from Colby Junior College in 1944 and went on to receive her BA and her MA degrees in Government from UNH, Class of 1949.She worked alongside Governor Sherman Adams and Senator Norris Cotton and President Eisenhower, before turning her focus to Strafford in 1954 to co-direct Camp Idlepines for Girls with her sister Janice Cooper Adams. Together the two sisters hosted over a thousand girls from around the world until 1983. In 1984 they transformed the resident camp into a day camp to include local children until the last year in 1985. She was active in the American Camping Association, the New England Camping Association, and served on the Board of the NH Camp Directors Association. Jane Cooper married Norman E Fall of Farmington NH in 1957 and they made their home in Farmington where he worked for the Farmington National Bank. They moved to Rochester in 2000. She loved skiing and golfing and spending time on Bow Lake in Strafford. But most of all, she loved serving others. Jane was an active Board member of the Strafford County YMCA for almost 30 years, was instrumental in fundraising for the Y's financial assistance program for low income youth and was a major donor and supporter of the YMCA's Camp Foss. In recognition of her commitment to the YMCA, she was awarded Volunteer of the Year and received the Chairman's Award in 2004 for outstanding service to Camp Foss and the YMCA. She was a long-time member of the YMCA Strafford County Advisory Board. In 1970, Jane became president of the Farmington VNA. After it merged with the Rural District Health Council in 1988, she served on the Board of Directors for another 28 years and was given the Cornerstone award in 2013 when it merged with the Rochester VNA and became Cornerstone VNA. Jane served on the Frisbie Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees for 34 years. In 2004 she was awarded the Auxiliary Volunteer Award by the NHAHA and in 2014 was selected as one of the first two individuals to be named a Frisbie Memorial Hospital Healthcare Champion. In 2010 she was celebrated for 50 years of volunteering at Frisbie, including president and member of the hospital's Auxiliary, as well as the founder of the Frisbie Annual Lights of Love Program and lead coordinator for 31 years. She served as honorary hospital historian, developed the scholarship program, and led the hospital's holiday decorating team for 50 years. She received numerous awards, including the NH Hospital Association James A. Hamilton Founder's Award for outstanding service to healthcare, the NH Association of Auxiliaries Volunteer of the Year Award and Governor Jeanne Shaheen's recognition as an Outstanding Adult Volunteer. She was a friend of the Rochester Opera House. She was the spearhead for fundraising for Austin Hall in Center Strafford, serving with the Strafford Historical Society. For 17 years she sponsored various golf matches to fund Child Care at the Community Action Partnership of Strafford County (CAPSC). She was a member of the Society for the Protection of NH Forests and a member of the DAR. She was active in the Rochester Congregational Church, the Farmington Congregational Church, the Third Baptist Church in Strafford, and the Free Will Baptist Church at Bow Lake. In 2015 she was honored as Rochester's Citizen of the Year. Jane Cooper Fall was predeceased by her husband in 2002, by her brother Richard Foss Cooper in 1985, her sisters Barbara Cooper Thompson Cogswell in 2006 and Janice Cooper Adams in 2012, and by her niece Betsy Thompson Booth in 2009. She leaves behind eight nieces and nephews, seventeen grand nieces and nephews, twenty-four great-grand nieces and nephews, one great-great-grand nephew, and 1,371 CIP campers and counselors to whom she is still fondly known as "Aunt Jane." No one church will be big enough to hold all the people she touched, so the planning of her memorial service is still underway. In lieu of flowers, please donate to any of the groups she loved or volunteer your time and do your best to fill the shoes she left behind.