Born John Cooper Jr. in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1887, John Cobb Cooper graduated from Princeton University and received in 1909 and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1911. In 1917 he joined the United States Navy and attained the rank of lieutenant during World War I. Cooper was appointed to the International Technical Committee of Legal Aerial Experts, 1932–1934 and became vice-president of Pan American Airways 1934–1945, serving on the board of directors from 1944–1946. He was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1945 to 1950 and in 1951 founded the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University in Montreal, which had become the home of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. body charged with safety in air navigation. In 1952 he was awarded his LL.D. from McGill University. From 1951–1957 he was professor of International Air Law at McGill University and first director of the Institute of International Air Law.