Vali Cooper Bedey

HAMILTON, MT - Vali Cooper Bedey, 52, of Hamilton passed away, Friday, April 17, 2009 at her home along the Bitterroot River, next to nature, a very important facet of her life. She was born on September 28, 1956 in Walnut Creek, California and was raised in Martinez, California and enjoyed many weekends and summers in the mountains of the Sierras in White Pines, California.

Anxious to conquer the world, she graduated high school at 16 and then attended Sonoma State College. With her business prowess and adventuresome spirit she pursued ventures such as promotions for an old-fashioned traveling three ring circus, followed by a stint in Hollywood promoting for Donnie and Marie Osmond. She then worked for her father learning the profession of surveying followed by engineering and consulting positions with public and private entities in California. With her strong business sense and desire to go out on her own, she started her own construction management firm in 1987. The company, Vali Cooper and Associates, grew into a firm of over 100 professionals and has been listed in Engineering News Record's top 100 construction management firms for the last nine years.

Vali's leadership style which included strong family values and the vision she followed associated with her Cherokee heritage, which inspired her dream to start this firm, has resulted in the great success which her business has enjoyed over the last 22 years. A guiding force in her dream was a mythical bird which she labeled as a "crowhawk" which is a symbol that continues to oversee the family she has developed within Vali Cooper and Associates.

In 1998 she met her husband, Gary, on a major expansion project to the San Francisco International Airport where they worked for competing firms. Here they developed their inseparable bond and later married in 2000. In March of 2009, she utilized her experience, expertise, and family values to help form another company to compliment Vali Cooper and Associates. The firm, Vali Cooper International, already provides high end program and project management expertise on large projects in the southern United States and Canada. Vali was very active in numerous engineering and consulting groups in California, including CELSOC, ASCE and was a past president of the Northern California Chapter of APWA. With her involvement with CELSOC, she also was an integral part of the effort for the successful passing of California Proposition 35 which was instrumental in allowing consulting work to be performed by private engineering firms for the State of California.

Even with all the commitments and time required to be a business owner, Vali had a passion for life outside of work. She was an avid scuba diver, sailor, white water rafter, airplane pilot, world traveler, musician, gourmet chef, and most importantly loved nature and family events in the mountains of California and Montana. Vali loved animals, especially her dogs that brought her a lot of joy in her life. She also had an alter-ego, FiFi LaRue, which always resulted in extravagant events which she organized with family and friends. She always had that creative flair that added something special to everything and person that she touched in her life.

She was preceded in death by her father Jasper, her mother Freda and her most dear friend and aunt, Bonnie Keeland. She is survived by her husband Gary, her stepdaughter, Cheryl Christensen and Allen of Missoula, Montana and stepdaughter Nicole Bedey of Missoula, Montana; brother Bill Cooper and wife Sue Horn of Martinez, California and sister Garnet McClure and husband Jim of Fremont, California.

In-lieu of flowers, a donation to the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is suggested.