Page Four
T HE MI C HIGA N DA ILY
1 -7 1 nC.-
' "' -..v"''September 17, 1956
The DreamThatCook Buil:
By LEE MARKS ned to build a men's dormitory (he
Daily staff writer had already built Martha Cook in
W ILLIAM W. COOK doled out honor of his mother) but wrang-
eight million dollars to make ling and disagreement among lit-
a dream come true, and then, for erary school faculty members as
fear reality would belie the dream, to how the dormitory should be
never returned to see it. built had so irritated Cook that
In all, Cook gave to the Univer- the project was in danger.
sity gifts worth sixteen millionb
dollars-Martha Cook Dormitory cHE beging, if there existed
and the four buildings which com such a point, of the creation
prise the Law School being theldthat was to occupy a prominent
most prominent--without ever re- place in Cook's life may have come
visiting the campus where he spent at a small party in 1919.
his undergraduate days. During a social conversation
The rumor may or may not be "-Dean Bates suggested to President
true--there are some who claim Hutchins that Cook bhe asked to
the lonely millionaire surveyed the rontiibute to a law school rather
Campus y nigut, aslone, to set
amps byaw ichalon,utoit seen in- a" ~i2than the dormitory. In Dean Bates'
"his" law school-.but it is an in- ,r odteews"otogto
teresting sidelight on the life of woirds, there was "no thought of
threstmnnsideligtrmndtheUier-finitiating a grand plan, or, for
the man often termd the Univei that matter, any plan . .
sity's gr eaest benefactor, -ARTISTS SKETCH OF THE LAW QUADRANGLE A few weeks later Cook withdrew
Along with being the Univer-ATS' KEC FT
ity'smot magnanimou donr di staste for women which Cook undergraduate striving hard is loneliness and the company of his hi dothrident took ean Bate
have built a legend not only on theiaie omeies viewed a an probably correct. Evidence indi- individualistic ho es suggestion. Shortly thereafter the
have builtealegendot only pron- inhiitance from hia amou' an- cates that his life was character- "The puritan strain must have Dean was on his way East to
his generosity but on his peison- cetor benstog n iEIawsstspakttCoko
ality as well. Anecdotes about O . ized by an introverted personality been strong in him. It was re- speak to Cookm
the man hseclrtesad ido Of his undergraduate days ati veaed in a deep-seated loyalty .. . .
, is peculiaries an io the University little is known ex- that forced him to live largely to his state his profession, his Theirofirs t meetmgofs an
syncrasies, are told and retold. cept that he iceive his BA. in in a world of dreams and ideals. University tiation of the sort of man Cook
Puritan Strain 1880 and graduated from the LawA s "He lived much in a world of was.
"School in 1882. N OLD newspaper cippmn imagination, turning from the im-
COOK was born in Hillsdale, Second hand sources claimI claims he was a "man apart, perfections of the actual to the BATES, arriving at precisely the
Michigan, on April 4, 1858, a Cook was a "quite serious, studious a mysterious indvidual, secretive, creations of his own mind and correct time, as he had been
ninth generation lineal descendant American boy who was not known incomprehensible. Except when then refusing to view them for urged to do, was ushered into a
of William Bradford. governor of to have attracted attention or his work brought him into contaet fear, perhaps, that they would not small office by a woman he as-
the Massachussets Colony in 1620.1 friends." sith people he seems to have realize the splendor of his sumed was Cook's secretary. Cook
The puritan strain and general The picture of Cook as a lonely shunned his own kind, preferrin dreams" informed him later the woman was
- ---- - --- - It was of course precisely this "only a stenographer"
-- -- - -- - - ------ ---- -- loathing to face the difference be- In the wofds of Bates, "In re-
tween reality and dream that is sponse to my salutation he rose
commonly assumed to have kept slowly and silently from his desk,
him from the campus for several looking at me with eyes which
decades. would have pierced the armor on
a battleship and finally said with-
NOTBE article claims, "Re aiout any other greeting 'Your hair
A was loath to look upon a isn't as red as I thoutht it would
chanting campus. The picture heisn'
Th r' ain ly KnAown"adbsiesmi b nwte ____________
wished to retain was of the cam- "I assured him that earlier it
pus as he knew it." And yet, as a had had more of an auburn hue,
hard business man lie knew the
value of change, contributing to
the change of the campus he loved Cook on Genetics
l perhaps s much any man has. Long noted for eceentricities,
Fo r m e r Universty President William W. Cook wrote a book
HarryHutchins, is quoted in sev- entitled "American Institutions
era sources as remembering Cook,1and'Their Preservation" in
as a peculiar man with a fast 1927. It was last taken from
mind and a "steely coldness," a the General Library in the mid-
man who knew what he wanted thirties.
and usually got it. President Hut- Written to "quicken the na-
11"I A lu t As ochins was one of Cook's teachers tional consciousness," Cook
(in a class on rhetoric)' and ap- provides the following opinions
pears to have been influential in on the "problems" of his day:
the latter's decision to endow the THE JEW: "We may not like
University, the manners; we may not like
Years of m1usicallyintelligent srceYC in an atmosphere of When he graduated young Cook the methods of the Jews, but
yheaded East and within a short they are here to stay. We can
time amassed a good deal of mon- prevent others from coming but
congenial informality, have resulted in an envied pOsitiOn ey practicing cororation law and cannot drive out those now
investing, here, and we may rest assured
among record dealers. His modesty once led him to con- they will not leave voluntar-
fess to Henry Bates, dean of the ily ... America has the best
Law School from 1910 to 1939 that wishes for Palestine as a home
A COMIPRiIhE',NSIVE RE;CORD SThOCK -e was not, for a lawyer, a poor for the Jews .. "
man. Dean Bates is supposed to THE NEGRO: "Centuries do
TABLE MODEL & CONSOL ERADIO-PHONOGRAPHS have surmised that Mr. Cook was not seem to change the essen-
RECORI CABINETS AND 'ThER ACCESSORIES not a poor man for any profession. tially negro characteristics. The
situation is a reproach to the
TV SETS by RCA VICTOR Books & Building , nation, a menace to the Re-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSIC COOK also built a reputation as public ... The day may come
an author, a reputation of when some powerful charac-
which he was proud. His two books icrs will extend the bon-
on corporation law, "Cook on c rdes of the Uni d Stae
Corporations" and "Principles of southward and by the induce-
'ay me inic tle )'ofto ' sit ts a either of our Corporation Law," were valued as ment of 'forty ace and a mule
authorities on their subjects. He cau the negro to go there
ttC'o tonvenient'utfc Ctions. also wrote "Power and Responsi- and live his own life under a
bility of the American Bar, and protE torate:"
"American Institutions and Their T AERIAN:edA fewsyars
n iiv ;nn ago America fed the starvingmilosfRu'abtwtht
rresevation. . millions of Russia but without
At least one writer claims that recognizing its Bolshevik gov-
the period during which he wrote re ng its Bheviioy-
--Downtown- his books on corporation law policy tof Itbo th governments to
"when he was alone, evoting plc
205 East Liberty Street ' remember the friendly past and
himself to serious study," led him continue it in the future,"
Phone NO 2-0675 to see the need for an institution THE IEISH: "A singularly
like the Law chool he created. It affectionate race, when treated
-Campus-- is, at any rate, a reasonable in- with kindness and firmness,
211 South State Street ference that it led him to see the yet quick to ake offense and
Phone NO 8-9013need for a well-deelope legal r- quarrelsome, they wait for no
serch program. oncomer ..,. Born to toil, their
Cook's decision to build a law bones are found along the path-
school at the University was, in way ,of every railroad .and
part anyway, a result of circum- trench."
stance and accident. He first plan- 11_ _