Today we have the fortune of being addressed by Mr. William A. Cook on the subject of
"Star of Indiana: Recollections."
Mr. Cook enrolled at the University of Illinois on a football scholarship in 1949, after
which he immediately transferred to Northwestern University to study Biology, graduating in
1953. He received an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1992, and the following year received an Honorary
Doctor of Laws degree from Indiana University.
Mr. Cook served the Army as a medic, teaching Physics of Anesthesia to Army resident
anesthesiologists in 1953. His business career began two years later as an aircraft engineering
recruiter, and continued as a catalog editor and salesman for American Hospital Supply
Corporation. By 1958 he co-founded MPL Incorporated, becoming the third largest hypodermic
needle manufacturer in the United States.
In 1963 Mr. Cook founded Cook Incorporated in Bloomington, Indiana, producing
percutaneous wire guides, catheters, and needles as its first products with Bill and his wife Gayle
as its only employees. The now conglomerate Cook Group, Incorporated went on to establish
manufacturing facilities in the United States, Australia, Denmark and Canada, with sales
organizations throughout the world. Forty-two companies form Cook Group Incorporated,
manufacturing a wide range of products for interventive medicine. Other Cook corporations are
involved in real estate, electrical products, investment, retail fabrics and antiques, and travel
services.
Mr. Cook was instrumental in the restoration and re-use of historical buildings in
Southern Indiana, including five properties on the National Register of Historic Places. He
founded the Monroe County YMCA, now the largest in Indiana, and is sponsor of the Star of
Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps, a traveling and performing group of 128 young people. Cook
companies provide significant financial support to universities, hospitals and physicians
throughout the country for the advancement of education and medical research.
Mr. Cook is an honorary Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, receiving
numerous community service, conservation and historic preservation awards, business and
productivity awards, and recognition from the American Heart Association, International Special
Procedures Conference, and the Society for Cardiovascular and Interventinal Radiology. He has
served on numerous boards of civic and business organizations.
Mr. Cook has been the executive producer of the nationally televised Drum Corps
International drum and bugle corps world championships for five years. He is a licensed jet
pilot, and a contributor to various books and periodicals. He serves as president and chairman of
the board of Cook Group Incorporated.
Please welcome drum corps most unique benefactor, Mr. William A. Cook.