John Jay Kooiker is an American politician who represents Iowa"s Fourth District in the state House of Representatives.
Education
He graduated from Western Christian High School in 1964, as class valedictorian. He attended Calvin College, then Kansas State University, where he earned a masters in Mathematics Education and a Doctor of Philosophy Kooiker served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War.
Career
Kooiker is one of seven children born to John and Johanna Kooiker (née Vermeer). He left the army and began teaching math and physics at the Christian Academy in Japan in 1972. Kooiker returned to the United States in 1975, moving to Boyden, Iowa.
He worked for the United States Postal Service as a letter carrier from 1977 to 2005.
Kooiker defeated Democrat John Bunstma and write-in candidate Dennis Wright, a former mayor of Hull, Iowa, in the special election called on January 6, 2015, after the November 2014 death of Dwayne Alons. He serves on the Labor, Local Government, Public Safety, and Veteran Affairs committees and co-chairs the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Capitals Appropriations Subcommittee.
In October 2015, Kooiker stated that he would not seek a second term. Sam first ran for the mayoralty of Rapid City, South Dakota in 2007, but lost.
A daughter died of cancer in October 2007.