Arthur P. Cooley (June 2, 1934 – January 30, 2022) was an American biology teacher, naturalist and expedition leader, and a co-founder of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). In the mid-1960s, while a teacher at Bellport High School on New York's Long Island, Cooley was one of several local activists who came together to stop the use of the pesticide/pollutant DDT by the Suffolk County Mosquito Control Commission. From that successful collaboration emerged the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a non-profit environmental advocacy group.