Diplomatic Insider Chester L. Cooper

After leaving government service in 1970, he embarked on a second career that focused on environmental issues. He was director of the Institute for Defense Analysis, director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (based in Vienna, Austria) and Washington director of the International Institute for Energy Analysis.

In 1995, he embarked on yet another career as head of international programs for the Battelle Memorial Institute at the University of Maryland. He retired as professor emeritus in 2001.

In addition to his memoir, "In the Shadows of History: Fifty Years Behind the Scenes of Cold War Diplomacy" (2005), he was the author of "The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam" (1970) and "The Lion's Last Roar: Suez, 1956" (1978); editor of "Growth in America" (1976); and co-editor of "Science for Public Policy (1987).

His wife, Orah Pomerance Cooper, died in 2002.

Survivors include two daughters, Joan Gould of London and Susan Cooper of Washington; a brother, Mitchell Cooper of Chevy Chase; and three grandchildren.

Dr. Cooper enjoyed fly fishing in Scotland, in addition to his sculpting.

He shaped hundreds of tiny clay characters for his model circuses while driving to work at the White House every morning. He'd leave the figures in the glove compartment during the day and then bake them in the kitchen oven when he returned home late at night. Occasionally, he forgot about them. Preparing dinner, Mrs. Cooper knew she was likely to find a tiny bearded lady, a svelte trapeze artist or perhaps a mighty miniature elephant when she opened the oven door.

Dr. Cooper's model circuses -- he made three of them over the years -- ended up at Children's Hospital, the National Institutes of Health and the Cleveland Clinic.