Former Vt. U.S. attorney dies at 90
Toolbox
By PATRICK McARDLE STAFF WRITER - Published: September 28, 2009
A longtime local attorney whose career in public service included time in the Vermont Senate representing Rutland County and more than a dozen years as the U.S. Attorney in Vermont died on Saturday morning at the age of 90.
George W. F. Cook's career took him from graduation from Rutland High School in 1936 to a stint in the Army Air Corps, from graduation from Columbia University Law School and Georgetown Law School to President Pro Tem as a state senator, from a U.S. Attorney appointed by two presidents to a proud father of five children, four of them medical doctors.
"The only things that were important to him were being a good, hardworking, honest lawyer and that his children were well-educated," said Laicita Cook, his wife of 63 years.
Cook was born in Mount Holly, grew up in Shrewsbury and spent his summers working on his grandfather's farm in Mount Holly.
After graduating from Middlebury College in 1940, he went to work at an aircraft engine manufacturing plant in Hartford, Conn., where he met Laicita for the first time. During World War II both enlisted, George in the Army Air Corps and Laicita in the Women's Army Corps.
The two married after the war while Cook was a student at Columbia University Law School. He graduated and worked as an attorney for the Navy in Washington, D.C., earning his master's degree from Georgetown Law School at the same time.
But Cook's upbringing had a powerful influence on him.
Dr. Timothy Cook, one of George's sons, said his father reached a decision in 1955.
"He just decided one day, 'This isn't what I wanted to do with my life.' He wanted to come back home and take care of the people he grew up with," Timothy Cook said.
Laicita said they purchased a big, old farm in Shrewsbury and Cook was "happy" to take on the kind of clients who might pay their bill with raspberries or potatoes or, in one case, by using a bulldozer to take care of one of the roads on the farm.
In Vermont, Cook was a partner with Clayton Kinney on the second floor of the Mead Building. Rutland attorney Joseph O'Rourke, who worked on the fifth floor of the building, started a friendship with Cook that lasted almost half a century.
"George was a swell fella. Very bright, very capable but very down to Earth," O'Rourke said.
O'Rourke was one of several people who said on Sunday that Cook was never the sort of person to "forget where he came from."
According to Laicita, George and his cattle-farmer father, Edward Cook, were well-known enough in the area that Cook was able to get elected as a state senator after his firs campaign in 1959. Cook quickly took on leadership positions as chairman of the Judicial Committee for 10 years beginning in 1959 and President Pro Tem from 1965 to 1969.
His family recalled that Cook was especially proud of the work he had done to clean up Vermont's waterways and abolish billboards.
In 1969, Cook was appointed U.S. Attorney by President Richard Nixon. He was replaced by President Jimmy Carter but reappointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Cook resigned at the age of 67 in 1986.
Norman Cohen, a Rutland attorney, said Cook brought him up from Washington., D.C., in 1969 to serve as the assistant U.S. attorney. At the time, Cohen was the only assistant until the two men were later joined by David Gibson.
"It was very business-like office but there was a warm feeling. At the time, it was like a small law firm. George was an excellent mentor. … It was an experience like no other," he said.
Cohen remembered Cook as an excellent prosecutor who could use the "full force of the office" when it was necessary but also "knew when to bend."
Aug. 9, 1969, was Cohen's first day in the new office and he said he would always call Cook on Aug. 9 to thank him for bringing him to Vermont.
"I would say something like, 'It's been 23 years since you imported me to Vermont and I'm still grateful.' We would both get a chuckle out of it," he said.
Even after retirement, the legal community remembered Cook. Stephen Klein, president of the Rutland County Bar Association, said the organization had honored Cook two years ago for his career.
"George was considered a legend," Klein said.
Klein said Cook was known as someone who could be stern but fair which earned the respect of lawyers and judges for both the state and federal courts.
Timothy Cook said his father's long and distinguished career had its effect on his own life. He remembers being approached by people who wanted to tell him about the positive effect his father had on their lives including a police officer who said Cook had greatly improved the working relationship between local and federal law-enforcement officers.
"He wasn't the type to lecture. He simply led by example. He was adamant that we all finish school and he told us, 'Your life only has value if you're of service to others.' That's how four of us ended up as doctors," he said.
patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com
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