Maxwell Herbert Cooper, 89, has received a Medal (OAM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for service to dentistry and to the community of Dubbo.

Mr Cooper and wife Terry, who worked as a physiotherapist, lived in Dubbo from 1966 to 1996.

In that time Mr Cooper more than paid his dues as a citizen.

READ ALSO:

He was a councillor on the former Dubbo City Council from 1987 to 1995 and deputy mayor from 1991 to 1993.

Mr Cooper also served as a director of Dubbo Base Hospital from 1987 and Western Power from 1987 to 1995.

He was president of Dubbo Rotary Club for a year starting in 1984 and chairman of Dubbo Regional Art Gallery from 1987 to 1995.

As a dentist, Mr Cooper ran a private practice in Dubbo from 1967 to 1975 before becoming the principal dental officer for the Department of Health in the Orana and Far West region from 1975 to 1987.

His dedication and expertise saw him elected to the NSW State Council of the Australian Dental Association from 1976 to 1982.

In 1978 Mr Cooper received a foundation grant from the University of Sydney to study preventative dentistry in North Carolina in the United States.

The following year he was appointed to the position of honorable research associate at the Institute of Dental Research, Sydney.

In 1980 Mr Cooper was appointed a member of the United Nations' (UN) World Health Organisation (WHO) team to investigate dental epidemiology in Queensland.

Four years later he was awarded a Master of Dental Surgery from the University of Sydney with his thesis topic, dental epidemiology.

The same year he was appointed a UN WHO consultant.

Mr Cooper's award follows the receipt of an OAM in 2018 by his eldest son, Associate Professor Michael Cooper, 56, for significant service to medicine in the field of gynaecology.

Born in October 1930 in Maryborough, Max Cooper withdrew from study to be a doctor of medicine in 1950 after the death of his father and "family financial problems".

He graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery in 1960.

The Coopers moved to Corlette in the Port Stephens local government area after 30 years in Dubbo.

This week Mr Cooper called the OAM "a great honour".

"I'm very surprised to have received it because the work was done quite a long while ago and somehow it has come up," he said.

"It's going to be a delightful 90th birthday present."