John Robert Cook
By Staff
Feb. 27, 2009
Funeral for John Robert Cook, 84, of Decatur was Wednesday, Mar. 4, at 1 p.m. at First Bible Church of Decatur with Dr. Steve Bateman officiating and Roselawn Funeral Home directing.
Burial was in Roselawn Gardens of Memory.
Mr. Cook died Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, at his residence of pancreatic cancer. He was born Jan. 21, 1925, in Athens as the only child of John L. and Leona Cook. The family moved to Decatur in 1927.
After graduating from Riverside High School in 1943, Cook enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served during World War II in Atlanta, Ga. and the South Pacific until his discharge in 1946.
He studied architecture at Georgia Tech, graduating in 1950. That same year, after the death of his father, he gave up his dream of a career in architecture and returned to Decatur to fulfill termite guarantees for the family business. His architectural training instilled within him an attention to detail that was beneficial in growing a pest control business. Under his leadership, Cook’s grew from one full-time employee and only a few accounts to become the seventh largest pest control company in the U.S.
Cook was the recipient of numerous allocades and honors. His civic involvement included extensive work with the Decatur Jaycees. In 1959, he was named Jaycees’ Young Man of the Year, and in 1961, was one of our four men named Outstanding Young Man in Alabama. Cooks served on the following boards: Morgan County Industrial, Central Bank, Regions Bank, Decatur General Hospital Foundation, Calhoun College Foundation, Edwin Hodges Ministries, and Chamber of Commerce Beautification. In 1988, the Chamber honored Cook by naming him Small Business Person of the Year.
Cook served as president of the Alabama Pest Control Association and the National Pest Control Association. In 2001, the national association presented him with the President’s Pinnacle Award. That year, Cook’s won the Better Business Bureau’s National Torch Award for marketplace ethics.
In 1965,with a desire to share their faith, Cook and his wife Jo began hosting a weekly Bible study, from which First Bible Church of Decatur was established. Cook, a charter member, served as elder for many years. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Cooks were lay staff members with Campus Crusade for Christ and hosted a high school ministry in their home.
In 1980, Cook built Cook’s Natural Science Museum as a place to share the wonder of God’s creation with the public. The museum welcomes visitors free of charge seven days a week. When Decatur Heritage Christian Academy was established in 1995, Cook joined others in freely offering his time and resources in support of academic excellence in Christian education. Globally, he led mission trips to Moldova and the Ukraine.
In 2008, Cook’s life story was recorded in the book, “Employee Number 2: The Story of John Cook and Cook’s Pest Control”
Cook was preceded in death by his parents and an infant son, James Lewis Cook.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Eleanor “Jo” Mitcham Long Cook of Decatur; a son, John Robert Cook Jr. and wife Lyn Striplin Cook; and grandson, Brian Christopher Cook, all of Decatur.
Pallbearers were Jim Aycock, George White, Joey Harris, Bill Prince, Scott Dubach and Fred Henderson.
Honorary pallbearers were members of Mr. Cook’s Thursday morning Bible study class.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to Decatur Heritage Christian Academy, P.O. Box 5659, Decatur, AL 35601.
