By Ginger O’Donnell

Boston native David Kooy, AB ’79, synced with the Washington University community from his first days on campus. When his father dropped him off at his dorm, Kooy quickly realized he was surrounded by a group of talented and supportive peers. “I felt comfortable from the get-go,” he says.

As a young gay man coming of age when LGBTQ+ advocates faced significant public pushback for asserting their rights, Kooy found a comparatively easy and welcoming home at WashU, one that provided him with a sense of belonging and acceptance. He would go on to make lifelong friends, get involved in student life, and cultivate the distinct creative abilities that fueled his career.

“WashU gave me an environment where I could explore a new world and be supported by a bunch of smart people,” says Kooy, who now lives in New York City. “It was just like, ‘OK, he’s gay.’ There was no drama to that story.”

The acceptance and support David Kooy received as an undergraduate at WashU led him to make an estate gift to his alma mater. (Photo: Kamau Hawkins)

Fast-forward nearly three decades to the mid-2000s: Kooy had translated his urban studies degree into a successful career as an independent real estate investor and developer.

He found himself facing unexpected health challenges and began to contemplate his legacy with greater intention. “In the absence of children, I wondered, what am I really leaving behind for the world?” he says.

Recalling his formative undergraduate years, Kooy decided to invest in the education of tomorrow’s students by making a commitment through his estate to establish the David Peter Kooy Professorship in Arts & Sciences. The endowed position will help the university recruit or retain distinguished faculty members for years to come, preferably in the field of sexuality studies.

Kooy believes the professorship holds immense promise for sustaining teaching and learning about LGBTQ+ history — remembering and honoring past trailblazers while also examining what it takes to advocate for equity today and create lasting social change. “It’s important for students to know how we got to where we are,” he says. “It didn’t just happen. It wasn’t just a discussion. It was a fight.”

Kooy himself participated in this struggle. At WashU, he served in a leadership role for Concerned Gay Students, a formally recognized LGBTQ+-student organization that hosted community speakers and embraced individuals from less inclusive universities. Later, he was an early board member for the Brooklyn Community Pride Center (BCPC), founded in 2008, which offers services and support to the New York borough’s LGBTQ+ community. For several years, he provided office space to the nonprofit. He also helped identify, design, and build BCPC’s first permanent site in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

Beyond LGBTQ+ advocacy, Kooy has channeled his WashU education into a variety of creative and business pursuits. A highlight of his real estate career is the renovation of a Brooklyn warehouse that now serves as a home for creative professionals in a variety of industries as well as a TV and film shoot location. He is an avid painter who loves the possibilities inherent in a blank canvas and the fulfillment of occasionally selling his work through his Gallery Kooy, which also is situated in the building. And he recently designed a clothing line featuring embroidered images of his widely beloved cat, Rabbi Meow Meow.

David Kooy’s clothing line was inspired by a three-legged cat named Rabbi Meow Meow that lives in his apartment building. (Photo: Ahmed Elhusseiny)

Defining experiences at WashU helped Kooy develop his artistic bent. He worked his way up from DJ to general manager at student-run radio station KWUR. There, he delved deeply into jazz music to expose the station’s sizeable listener base to what he calls “the fringes of jazz” and “the most important jazz songs ever.” Meanwhile, excursions to Old North St. Louis, with its 19th-century brick houses, permanently affected his passion for architecture, design, and building.

These activities — combined with fundamental acceptance from his peers and the university’s public affirmation of LGBTQ+ identities — shaped Kooy and sparked his growth. “There’s an overarching theme to my whole WashU experience, which is that it was a very supportive place for me to be,” he says.

Kooy is an avid painter whose works include the one featured here. (Photo: Ahmed Elhusseiny)

In the absence of children, I wondered, what am I really leaving behind for the world?

David Kooy

With the David Peter Kooy Professorship in Arts & Sciences, he hopes to inspire generations of WashU undergraduates to learn from the past and advocate for LGBTQ+ freedoms in the future — and perhaps most important — find a haven at the university. “The time I had at WashU was exactly what I needed,” Kooy says. “I would love to think I’m helping to advance that encouraging atmosphere through this professorship.”

LIKE DAVID, YOU CAN SUPPORT THE WORK OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY THROUGH A PLANNED GIFT. PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE OF PLANNED GIVING TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN LEGACY AT WASHU.

plannedgiving@wustl.edu | 800.835.3503 | 314.935.5373