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t
Page Four
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
September 17, 1956
September 17, 1956
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
re .,.,,_.17. 19 .
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Notebook On A
Tow
TheJ
By LEE MARKS
Daily Staff Writer
WILLIAM W. COOK doled out
eight million dollars to make
a dream come true, and then, for
fear reality would belie the dream,
never returned to see it.
In all, Cook gave to 'the Univer-
sity gifts worth sixteen million
dollars-Martha Cook Dormitory
and the four buildings which com-
prise the Law School being the
most prominent-without ever re-
visiting the campus where he spent
his undergraduate days.
The rumor may or may not be
true-there are some who claim
the lonely millionaire surveyed the
campus by night, alone, to see
"his" law school-but it is an in-
teresting sidelight on the life of
the man often termed the Univer-
sity's greatest benefactor.
Along with being the Univer-
sity's most magnanimous donor,
Cook was its most eccentric. Years
have built a legend not only on
his generosity but on his person-
ality as well. Anecdotes about
the man, his peculiarites and idio-
syncrasies, -are told and retold.
Puritan Strain .. .
COOK was born in Hillsdale,
Michigan, on April 4, 1858, a
ninth generation lineal descendant
of William Bradford, governor of
the Massachussets Colony in 1620.
The puritan strain and general
Dream
That
Cook
ARTIST'S SKETCH OF THE LAW QUADRANGLE
distaste for women which CookI
had are sometimes viewed as an
inheritance from his famous an-
cestor.
Of his undergraduate days at
the University little is known ex-
cept that he received his B.A. in
1880 and graduated from the Law
School in 1882.
Second hand sources claim
Cook was a "quite serious, studious
American boy who was not known
to have attracted attention or
friends."
The picture of Cook as a lonely
undergraduate striving hard is
probably correct. Evidence indi-
cates that his life was character-
ized by an introverted personality
that forced him to live largely
in a world of dreams and ideals.
AN OLD newspaper clipping
claims he was a "man apart,
a mysterious indvidual, secretive,
incomprehensible. Except when
his work brought him into contact
with people he seems to have
shunned his own kind, preferring
loneliness and the company of his1
individualistic hobbies.
"The puritan strain must have
been strong in him. It was re-
vealed in a deep-seated loyalty
to his state, his profession, his
University.
"He lived much in a world of
imagination, turning from the im-
perfections of the actual to the
creations of his own mind and
then refusing to view them for"
fear, perhaps, that they would not
realize the splendor of his#
dreams."
It was of course precisely this
loathing to face the difference be-
tween reality and dreai that is;
commonly assumed to have kept;
him from the campus for several;
decades.-
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ANOTHER article claims, "He
was loath to look upon a
changing campus. The picture he
wished to retain was of the cam-
pus as he knew it." And yet, as a
hard business man he knew the
value of change, contributing to
the change of the campus he loved
perhaps as much as any man has.
F o r m e r University President
Harry Hutchins, is quoted in sev-
eral sources as remembering Cook
as a peculiar man with a fast
mind and a "steely coldness,", a
man who knew what he wanted
and usually got it. President Hut-
chins was one of Cook's teachers
(in a class on rhetoric) and ap-
pears to have been influential in
the latter's decision to endow the
University.
When he graduated young Cook
headed East and within a short
time amassed a good deal of mon-
ey practicing cororation law and
investing.
His modesty once led him to con-
fess to Henry Bates, dean of the
Law School from 1910 to 1939 that
he was not, for a lawyer, a poor
man. Dean Bates is supposed to
have surmised that Mr. Cook was
not a poor man for any profession.
Books & Building.. .
COOK also built a reputation as
an author, a reputation of
which he was proud. His two books
on corporation law, "Cook on
Corporations" and "Principles of
Corporation Law," were valued as
authorities on their subjects. He
also wrote "Power and Responsi-
bility of the American Bar, and
"American Institutions and Their
Preservation."
At least one writer claims that
the period during which he wrote
his books on corporation law
"when he was alone, devoting
himself to serious study," led him
to see the need for an institution
like the Law School he created. It
is, at any rate, a reasonable in-
ference that it led him to see the
need for a well-developed legal re-
search program.
Cook's decision to build a law
school at the University was, in
part anyway, a result of circum-.
stance and accident. He first plan-
Built:
ned to build a men's dormitory (he
had already built Martha Cook in
honor of his mother) but wrang-
ling and disagreement among lit
erary school faculty members as
to how the dormitory should be
built had so irritated Cook that
the project was in danger.
THE beginning, if there existed
such a point, of the creation
that was to occupy a prominent
place in Cook's life may have come
at a small party in 1919.
During a social conversation
Dean Bates suggested to President
Hutchins that Cook be asked to
contribute to a law school rather
than the dormitory. In Dean Bates'
words, there was "no thought of
initiating a grand plan, or, for
that matter, any plan . ..
A few weeks later Cook withdrew
his dormitory offer "in a huff"
and the President took Dean Bates'
suggestion. Shortly thereafter the
Dean was on his way East to
speak to Cook.
Their first meeting is an illus-
tration of the sort of man Cook
was.
BATES, arriving at precisely the
correct time, as he had been
urged to do, was ushered into a
small office by a woman he as-
sumed was Cook's secretary. Cook
informed him later the woman was
"only a stenographer."
In the words of Bates, "In re-
sponse to my salutation he rose
slowly and silently from his desk,
looking at me with eyes which
would have pierced the armor on
a battleship and finally said with-
out any other greeting 'Your hair
isn't as red as I thought it would
be!'
"I assured him that earlier it
had had more of an auburn hue,
Cook on Genetics
Long noted for eccentricities,
William W. Cook wrote a book
entitled "American Institutions
and Their Preservation" in
19?7. It was last taken from
the General Library in the mid-
thirties.
Written to "quicken the na-
tional consciousness," Cook
provides the following opinions
on the "problems" of his day:
THE JEW: "We may not like
the manners; we may not like
the methods of the Jews, but
they are here to stay. We can
prevent others from coming but
cannot drive out those now
here, and we may rest assured
they will not leave voluntar-
ily . . . America has the best
wishes for Palestine as a home
for the Jews . . .'
THE NEGRO: "Centuries do
not seem to change the essen-
tially negro characteristics. The
situation is a reproach to the
nation, a menace to the Re-
public ... The day may come
when some powerful charac-
ter . .. will extend the boun-
daries of the United States
southward and by the induce-
ment of 'forty acres and a mule'
cause the negro to go there
and live his own life under a
protectorate."
THE RUSSIAN: "A few years
ago America fed the starving
millions of Russia but without
recognizing its Bolshevik gov-
ernment. It is the traditional
policy of both governments to
remember the friendly past and
continue it in the future."
THE IRISH: "A singularly
affectionate race, when treated
with kindness and firmness,
yet quick to take offense and
quarrelsome, they wait for no
oncomer ... Born to toil, their
bones are found along the path-
way.of . every . railroad.and
trench."
(Continued from Page 9)
themdown from above and then
pulling them back up again; and
finally, of course, the main campus
Itself.
I wore out two pairs of shoes
covering this itinerary, and I had
Harvey
Asks
(Continued from Page 12)
land emerging-cellophane wrap-
ped and misty-through the black-
ness of the night.
"The streets were thronged with
window shoppers. And there was
music. The melody of a Salvation
Army lass's voice rising above the
jingle of the bell she rang seeking
people's pocket change for the
hungry, the ragged and the home-
less. Even the sooty walls of office
buildings were wrapped in clear,
clean notes from the majestic
chimes of church bells.
"In front of the merchant's
windows there were the loud-
speakers piped from the record
players inside. 'Silent Night' -
'Virgin Mother and Child'-and
white shirts in the window, 'Three
For Only Ten Dollars-Gift Wrap-
ped.'1
"Glancing from the shirts to-
ward another window we happen-
ed to notice a man clutch at his
stomach and fall. The people at
that window walked around and
over him.
"We walked over to the man.
He was middle-aged, neatly and
expensively dressed. One of the
people, in order to get a better
view of the sports slacks draped
around the jolly Santa Claus, had
inadvertantly stepped on the
man's wrist. A dirty heel mark
was imprinted on the white fabric
of his shirt cuff.
"We ran for a cop. The cop
called an ambulance. And, when
the ambulance came, the cop had
to force the people out of the way
in order to load the stricken man
on the stretcher.
"The attendant closed the am-
bulance door, as snowflakes fell
through the red beams of the
blinker lights. And through the
loudspeaker, piped through the
window with the white shirts from
the record player inside, came the
consoling phrase, 'Peace On
Earth.' "
Socks & Coins . ..
"SO-O-O?" Asked Harvey.
"Simply this," we answered.
"You, as a book reviewer, have
been wondering why writers don't
scribble nice, sweet books. We
have just told you some of the
things that writers see. Now, what
would you advise the writer to
do?"
"He might go buy a pup and
raise himself a dog for a friend,"
Harvey replied.
"That's out of the question," we
countered.
"Why?" asked Harvey.
"Simply because the writer is
too poor to buy a pup, and too
doggone lazy to steal one. You
know that as well as we do!"
"I'd better go," said Harvey,
picking up the bandanna-wrapped
bread crumbs. "It's getting late
and the pig is probably hungry."
"Don't rush off," we quipped.
"But I gotta go." Harvey went
to the door of the hovel, paused,
and turned around. "Do you have
a dime?" Hie asked.
"For what?" We wanted to
know.
"A cup of coffee," he replied.
"It's our last dime," we mused,
as we removed the tarnished coin
from the sock hidden under the
refrigerator. "But you know what
they say about the Widow's Mite,"
we concluded, angelically.
"People ain't all bad," Harvey
brayed, as he reached for the dime.
"Somebody could write a decent
book yet! Here you gave me your
bread crumbs and your last dime
and-"
"Down, boy, down!" we yelled.
"Go home and braid your wife
some moccasins."
to buy all new pairs for school inI
the fall. But the shoes were aI
small investment on what I gain-
ed in insight. For when you tramp
a dozen miles across the lawns of
sixty separate buildings housing an
inestimable amount of knowledge
from the fields of human under-,
standing, you begin then to per-I
ceive just how great the idea of
a university really is.
T HE last entry I am able to dis-
cern on the pages of my mental
notebook on Ann Arbor has to do;
with my very personal feeling to-
ward the town; it also involves a;
blue University panel truck and
mankind. I feel I must apologize
here for the philosophical tone iti
has taken, but that is the fault ofi
the years, and should not rightlyI
destroy the intended spirit of thei
observation - which is one of ap-o
preciation and homage offered to1
her.I
It is simply this: today as I
walk along a campus street no
longer do I notice the blue Uni-
versity trucks that cruise by. They
are there, of course, but I really
don't see them - as once I did.
Although I actually shouldn't let
this bother me, it does disturb me
a little to think of the talent I
once had for spotting them which
is now completely gone.
This, I feel, is my crime - a
crime of unawareness. To me,
another crime of unawareness -
one of which perhaps thousands
are guilty -. (and here is where
the homage enters in) is that
which carries us from day to day
in virtual ignorance of the charms
of a most gracious and outgoing
hostess, of what seems to me an
uncherished shrine, the autumn
city of the autumn west.
:
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But I reprieve myself
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finding comfort in th
that as essential ideali,
all alike in this respec
thoughtless.
In a college town this 4
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