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From the Arizona Republic:

"Jeff Cooper, one of the nation's leading experts in firearm techniques and gun safety, died Sept. 25 at Gunsite Academy, the training academy he founded in Arizona's high desert almost 30 years ago.

He was 86 and in ill health. He was retired, teaching courses part time since 1992.

He is credited with creating the modern technique of pistol shooting, popularized in countless movies.

A retired Marine Corps colonel, big-game hunter and outdoorsman, he developed the technique by staging a series of pistol matches near his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He observed and codified the best techniques, and out of these observations, he built the tenets of what would become the "Modern Technique of the Pistol," a system the academy says has saved the lives of thousands of law enforcement personnel, military operatives and private citizens.

The technique incorporated a two-handed Weaver stance, named for a Los Angeles policeman, a large-caliber handgun and quick acquisition of the sight picture. The technique also stressed safety, compressing the so-called 10 Commandments into four simple rules: all guns are always loaded; never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy; keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target; and identify your target and what's behind it.

Cooper moved to Arizona in the late '70s because Arizona's firearms laws were less restrictive than California's.

"The idea that a man is somehow unusual because he shoots or wishes to shoot or enjoys shooting is foreign to Arizona," he told The Arizona Republic five years ago.

A columnist for Guns & Ammo magazine and a longtime member of the National Rifle Association, Cooper was a leading advocate of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms."

Yes, I learned a lot from Jeff Cooper. From his books, "The Modern Technique of the Pistol" and the anthology of his Guns & Ammo Articles "To Ride, Shoot Straight, And Speak The Truth" one can find a how-to guide to pistol shooting and a wealth of wisdom from an honorable lifetime of good living.

References:
Michael Bane
G & A, Quotations
G & A, Remembering the Colonel