Donald Alexander Cook ’48

Donald Cook died Aug. 10, 1996, in Boston of chronic cardiac failure.

Don was born in Manila, where his father worked for the Bank of China. As a child, he contracted infantile paralysis, and in 1941 he was brought to NYC for surgery. While the family was in the U.S., Manila was overrun by the Japanese, and the Cook family lost everything they had left behind.

Don graduated from Garden City [N.Y.] H.S. in 1944, winning a prize in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and a scholarship to Princeton. He left Princeton after his freshman year to work at the Sperry Gyroscope plant on Long Island. After the war he transferred to Columbia, where he ultimately earned a PhD in psychology.

Don taught at Columbia, Barnard, Fairleigh Dickinson, Queens College, Stoney Brook, Hunter College, and finally Northeast U. in Boston. He taught with enthusiasm and flair, and was very popular with his students. Don held executive positions with a number of companies including Basic Systems and Responsive Environments as well as with this own consulting firm.

He married Joan Taylor in 1948; they divorced in 1955. They had a son, Michael. Don later married Dawn Mather, with whom he had three children, Constance, Malcolm, and Alison. Don's wit, charm, wide learning, and seriousness of purpose is sorely missed. The class extends its sincere sympathy to his family.

The Class of 1948