The University of the Sunshine Coast received a $25,000 endowment in honour of a woman who was one of the region’s strongest advocates of lifelong learning.

The donation from the University of the Third Age (U3A) Sunshine Coast branch celebrates the work of the late Frayda Myers Cooper (1923-2014) who founded the branch in 1986 and was its first president.

It will fund in perpetuity the U3A Frayda Myers Cooper Memorial Prize that was established at USC four years ago as an award for the highest-achieving student in the Arts subject “Imagined Homelands: An Exploration of Australian Literature”.

USC awarded an Honorary Senior Fellowship to Mrs Cooper in 2007 in recognition of her efforts in establishing U3A branches across Queensland.

The first of these was the Sunshine Coast branch that started at Caloundra 32 years ago before relocating to the USC campus at Sippy Downs when the University opened in 1996. There are now 32 U3A branches throughout Queensland.

The organisation, which has the motto “connecting seniors to lifelong education”, offers those aged 55 years and over the opportunity to learn for pleasure from a range of educational and leisure-based courses.

At USC, U3A members can also attend university classes that interest them, volunteer as research participants, end enjoy the relaxed learning environment of the campus.

A brief biography of Mrs Cooper is online at: www.buderimfoundation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/MYERS-COOPER_GIM.pdf