George W. F. Cook (May 20, 1919 – September 26, 2009) was a Vermont attorney and politician who served as President of the Vermont State Senate and United States Attorney for the District of Vermont.
Biography George Wallace Foster Cook was born in Shrewsbury, Vermont on May 20, 1919.Vermont Birth Records, 1909–2008, entry for George Wallace Cook, accessed June 24, 2012 Named for an uncle who died in World War I, he graduated from Middlebury College in 1940Vermont Secretary of State, Vermont Legislative Directory, 1985, page 443 and became an aeronautical engineer at Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, Connecticut.Bruce Edwards, Sixty-five Years in Love and War, Rutland Herald, April 21, 2008
Cook joined the United States Army Air Forces for World War II and served as a navigator.U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946, entry for George W. Cook, accessed June 24, 2012
After the war Cook enrolled at Columbia University Law School, where he received his law degree in 1948. From 1948 to 1955 he was an attorney for the United States Department of the Navy, and he earned a master's degree from Georgetown University Law School in 1952.Georgetown University , In Memoriam, Georgetown University Alumni Magazine, Spring/Summer, 2010Burlington Free Press, Obituary, George W. F. Cook, September 29, 2009
In 1955 Cook relocated to Shrewsbury and became a partner in a Rutland law firm.Vermont Legislative Directory, 1985, page 443 In 1958 he was elected to the Vermont State Senate,Vermont Secretary of State, Vermont Legislative Directory, 1959, page 794 and he served five terms, 1959 to 1969. Cook served as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee from 1963 to 1969Associated Press, Cook is Named to Judiciary Post, Bennington Banner, March 7. 1963 and President pro tem from 1965 to 1969., Presidents Pro Tempore of the Vermont Senate Since 1870, 2011, page 6 During his Senate service Cook was a leader in passing legislation that removed billboards from Vermont's roadsides.Bob Hagerman, State Moves to Enforce Billboard Relocation Law, Bennington Banner, January 11, 1966
Cook was also a Delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1964 and 1968.Burlington Free Press, Obituary, George W. F. Cook
In 1969 Cook was appointed to succeed Joseph F. Radigan as United States Attorney for Vermont by President Richard M. Nixon, and he held the office until 1977.Vermont Secretary of State, Vermont Legislative Directory, 1981, page 271
From 1978 to 1981 Cook served as a United States magistrate judge for the District of Vermont.Rutland Herald, Obituary, George W. F. Cook, September 29, 2009"Magistrate Cook retires", Rutland Daily Herald (April 18, 1980), p. 20. In 1981 he was reappointed United States Attorney by President Ronald Reagan, and succeeded William B. Gray.Burlington Free Press, Obituary, George W. F. Cook He served until retiring in 1986.Burlington Free Press, Obituary, George W. F. Cook
Cook died in Rutland on September 26, 2009Social Security Death Index, entry for George Wallace Foster Cook, accessed June 24, 2012 and was buried in Cuttingsville's Laurel Glen Cemetery.
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