Arthur W. Cooper, interviewed April 18, 1985, discusses the Institute of Ecology, including its origins, its approaches to research, its relationship with colleges and universities, its structural and funding challenges, and its demise. Dr. Cooper grew up in Washington D.C., received his bachelor's and master's degrees at Colgate University, and studied the relationships between plant life-form and microclimate and between microclimate and soil genesis for his doctoral research at the University of Michigan. He then joined the faculty of North Carolina State University in 1958. Later, he served as the President of the Ecological Society of America from 1980 to 1981.