DEAN O. COCHRAN, JR.'S DONATION ENSURES THE MUSEUM'S LIBRARY AND PHOTO ARCHIVES ARE ACCESSIBLE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.

Dean O. Cochran Jr. spent much of his life supporting the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

And Dean made sure that his legacy would live on forever in Cooperstown as a member of the 1939 Society.

As part of his estate planning, Dean, who passed away in 2018, left $5 million to the Museum, with instructions to use the money to support current and future Hall of Fame Library projects. Dean also donated more than 100 items to the Museum and Library collections including books, baseball cards, commemorative pins and documents.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas and a graduate of Texas Christian University, Dean was a proud Texan, an avid collector and a life-long baseball fan. His collection included more than 900 baseball books, as well as historic documents, photographs and baseball cards.

In the 1980s, Dean owned a baseball card shop, often keeping the most desirable cards that came in for his personal collection. The card shop was just another way for Dean to connect with the game he loved so much.

“Dean’s love of the game began with playing youth baseball, but his passion for the sport deepened when he became friends with Eddie Chiles, who at that time owned the Texas Rangers. Dean and Eddie spent many nights together at the old ballpark talking baseball,” recalled long-time friend Robert Semple.

Semple, who attended TCU with Dean, where they both pledged with Kappa Sigma, remembered him as “a bright individual, who studied, did his homework and made good grades, but had just as much fun as the rest of us, he had a great sense of humor.”

Cochran had a successful career as a banker and oil executive, but he may have missed his true calling given his passion for baseball history. Dean would spend countless hours researching the stories behind the items in his collection and loved to share them with his friends. Approaching collecting like a museum curator, he was driven not by simply owning the items in his collection – but by understanding how the items fit into the history of the National Pastime.

His long-time friend John Mayeron fondly remembered attending lunches that Dean hosted in Fort Worth with fellow collectors so that they could share stories and talk baseball. Each lunch included a show-and-tell, with everyone sharing an item from their personal collection.

“The stories were more important than the monetary value – as Dean’s quest for knowledge was always the driver behind everything he did,” Mayeron said. “He displayed his collection proudly in his Fort Worth home and he was always happy to provide a tour to friends, sharing the stories that he had uncovered through his research. That is why he loved the Hall of Fame Library and the public access to baseball history that it provides to researchers and fans.”

In recognition of Dean’s generous bequest, the Hall of Fame named two Library Archives in his memory. The Dean O. Cochran, Jr. Photographic Archive, which houses the Library’s collection of more than 300,000 photographs; and the Dean O. Cochran, Jr. Manuscript Archive, which houses the Library’s collection of documents. Additionally, Dean’s gift helps to ensure that the Museum has the resources to continue improving public access to the collection.

“We are so grateful for Dean’s long standing support of the Hall of Fame. This gift will have a lasting impact on the Hall of Fame Library, ensuring that our collections are preserved and accessible for future generations,” said Ken Meifert, the Museum’s Vice President of Sponsorship and Development. “His passion for baseball history and the Hall of Fame Library will always be remembered here in Cooperstown.”