David Cooperman received his undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Minnesota in the late 1940s and 1950s. As a student, he joined the on-campus Student NAACP and protested the ongoing segregationist policies of Dean Williamson until President James Lewis Morrill put an end to the practice.

In 1948, Cooperman became a teaching assistant and later a professor in the Sociology Department and Chair of the Scandinavian Studies Department. His expertise was in urban issues and his research focused on ways to help solve problems in the Minneapolis community. He was an adviser to the development of the Cedar-Riverside high-rise project in the early 1970s. Later in life, Cooperman focused on conflict-resolution and the relationship between police and the community.