Women of Bethlehem Steel - Donna Cooper

Annotation Donna Cooper worked in various positions at Bethlehem Steel, including data processing and clerical work, for just over fourteen years, before being laid off when the company downsized in the mid-1980s. She started working in keypunching for computer processors when she graduated from high school, eventually moving into secretarial work as well as higher positions within the data processing and IT departments. After being laid off in 1984, Cooper was able to use the training and skills sets that she learned at Bethlehem Steel to pursue work in data processing, research, and administration with other companies. She worked for an IT company called Computer Aid for several years, before moving several times between Tennessee, Connecticut, and North Carolina because of her husband’s work. While in Connecticut, she worked for Chandler Evans, an aircraft manufacturing company, before taking a job with the Automobile Club of Hartford (AAA), where she was the vice president of Human Resources and Public Relations. She later re-joined Computer Aid in North Carolina, where she continued to do targeted client research for several years. She currently works as an executive assistant for the president of a firm in Albany, New York. Although she has lived outside of Bethlehem for many years, she looks forward to seeing the Bethlehem Plant site revitalized, as she believes that Bethlehem Steel was an integral part of the South Side community and the Lehigh Valley. At the end of her interview, she indicates that she is thankful to Bethlehem Steel that she was able to work a stable job with good wages while learning transferable skills sets. This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted by Lehigh University and the Steelworkers’ Archives and supported by the Lehigh University Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative and the South Side Initiative. An oral history interview is an act of memory and hence both highly selective and highly subjective. While it accurately reflects what a narrator remembers (or chooses to tell) of his or her experience and viewpoints, it may not accurately represent what actually transpired or what another person may have experienced. As such, users should subject interviews to the same degree of critical scrutiny they would any other historical source.