Dudley Cooper was born in 1934 at Lameroo, South Australia and was raised in a Christian family which regularly attended church. At 14 years of age he gave his life to Christ in an Evangelistic Mission within the Methodist Church. Two years later he passed his Local Preacher’s Examination and became the youngest Methodist Lay Preacher in South Australia. The call to the ministry was evident and enquiries were made about entering the Methodist Training College.

However, at this stage, he was introduced to a Pentecostal Church and was subsequently baptised in water and filled with the Holy Spirit under the ministry of Pastor Leo Harris, founder of the Christian Revival Crusade (CRC). He attended the Bible School conducted by Leo Harris and was under his ministry for five years. He was married at the age of 20 and over the next two years established the first suburban CRC Church in the Adelaide area.

At the age of 22 he was in full time ministry and ordained as a Minister of the Crusade. He pastored the church at Pt. Adelaide for 8 years, then moved to Lt. Lincoln, S.A. where he built a church and ministered for 7 years. After this, he returned to Adelaide for 3 years as an Associate Pastor with Leo Harris, where he also lectured in Crusade Bible College on several subjects including Bible History and Prophecy.

In 1973 Pastor and Mrs. Cooper and their 5 children moved to Auckland, New Zealand where he pastored a church for 6 years. During this time he conducted the Crusade Bible College which contained 27 subjects and produced 28 graduates. He was National Secretary of the CRC, Secretary of the Auckland Pentecostal Ministers’ Fraternal and a member of the Steering Committee of the Associated Pentecostal Churches of New Zealand.

In 1979, Pastor Cooper returned to Australia and pastored in the CRC Assembly, Frankston Victoria with Pastor Don Dawson. Between 1985 and 1988 he served as the CRC National Chairman. In 2000 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He remained very active even in his last days. Pastor Dudley Cooper passed away 17th February 2010.