Bruce Farrell Cook

Dr. Bruce F. Cook-Long Serving Director of Bands and Founding Director of the Brooks Center

Dr. Bruce Farrell Cook, former Director of Bands, Professor of Music, and Founding Director of the Robert Howell Brooks Center for the Performing Arts at Clemson University, passed away on October 21 at Hospice of the Upstate in Anderson, South Carolina, after a year-long battle with cancer. Cook, 81, was a resident of Clemson SC.

Dr. Cook was born on August 24, 1933, in Quanah, Texas, to Earl Homer Cook and Dorothy Faye (Jarrell) Cook. The youngest of three children, Cook spent his early life working on the family farm during the years between the Great Depression and World War II. He often fondly recalled the trials of farm life, and the close relationships between him, his siblings and many cousins in this close-knit community. Particular among them were hijinks with his brother, Ray, his cousins, Jack Sides, Don and Galen Givens, Stanley and Doug Jarrell, and neighbors Jimmy and Charlie McSpadden; harvesting cotton and other crops, and going on cattle drives from one family ranch to another. He remained close to his brother, Raborn Earl (Ray) Cook and sister, Dorothy Lunette Dickson, throughout his life, and cherished opportunities to stay connected to their children and his extended family.

Cook attended West Texas State College (Now West Texas A & M University) in Canyon, Texas. At WTSC, he was involved in Kappa Kappa Psi Honorary Band and Alpha Sigma Xi social fraternity, and played in a swing band, the Collegians, with his roommate, John Butler, with whom he would maintain a friendship for over 60 years. After a lack of acumen for accounting derailed a brief change of major to business, he was awarded his bachelor's degree in Music in 1954.

Like many of his generation, Cook was moved to serve his country, following the examples set by his brother, who served in the Navy Submarine Service, and cousins Jack and Stanley, who served as fighter pilots in the European theatre during World War II. Both cousins were shot down. Stanley perished in a mission over Germany and Jack survived a crash in the Mediterranean to return to the States with the aid of Russian forces. The younger cousins, Don and Galen, would later become pilots. Galen served as a test pilot, and became a member of NASA's Apollo program before dying in a car accident in 1967.

Despite the winding down of the Korean War, following graduation, he asked the local draft board to move his name to the top of the list, and with his father's encouragement, followed the harvest between their farms in Colorado and Texas until his number was called. He served in the US Army from 1954-1956. His musical talent led to acceptance to an Army Band training unit, and assignment to the 23rd Infantry Division Band at Fort Clayton, Panama Canal. He was released from duty in July 1956, with a final rank of Master Sergeant, and began his first teaching position, as Band Director for McLean High School in McLean Texas.

In 1959, Cook accepted the position John Butler was leaving at Tulia High School. During his time at Tulia, the band program grew and earned many awards, including recognition as the Class AAA Texas Honor Band in 1965.

In 1964, he met his future wife, Patricia Elaine Eakins, who had been hired as Tulia's new drama teacher. Later that fall, he worked up the courage to ask her out for coffee, and they began dating. They kept their relationship discreet, to the point of having dates in Plainview, which was over 20 miles away, to avoid becoming the object of small-town gossip. Not long after Cook introduced Eakins to his mother during the 1965 Easter Break, they got engaged, and set a wedding date for June 2, 1965. At the last band concert that year, students and colleagues surprised them, when, at the end of "Highlights from The Unsinkable Molly Brown," the band began playing "The Wedding March," and showered them with gifts. Following a honeymoon in Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico, they would both enroll at West Texas State College for graduate programs, where Cook completed his Master's Degree in August 1965. They went on to enjoy 49 years of marriage together, raising four children, and enduring cross-state moves between South Carolina and Texas, as Cook pursued his education and career aspirations.

In 1966, Cook accepted an invitation to visit Clemson University, to discuss serving as Interim Director of Bands, during Butler's leave of absence to attend the University of Georgia for doctoral studies. In fall 1967, Cook was invited to stay on as Assistant Director of Bands. Cook and Butler worked to expand and improve the Bands and the offerings of the Department of Music.

From 1971 to 1973, Cook took his own leave of absence to pursue a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin. During the Spring of 1976, he was promoted to Associate Professor of Music and was primarily responsible for the marching band and pep bands. The position did not include summer work, so Cook worked at the Campus Bookstore as well as taking over a friend's newspaper route to make ends meet.

Appointed Director of Bands in 1980, Cook was actively involved in all aspects of Tiger Band until 1990, at which time he became the Founding Director of the Robert Howell Brooks Center for the Performing Arts. Under his direction, many Tiger Band traditions were established or ensconced at Clemson, including the revival of the football team's tradition of running down the hill through the band formation, the script spelling of "Tigers," the dotting of the "i" by selected honorees, and the re-emergence of purple as a Clemson color after the band made it their preferred color for sectional t-shirts, and began regularly chanting "Purple" during the cross-stadium "Orange-White" cheers. He was honored in 1984 to receive the Gator Farr Award for Outstanding and Dedicated Support of Clemson Athletics.

Retired since 1996, he continued to be an avid Tiger Band supporter, and spent hours compiling and editing material for the Tiger Band Pass-in-Review DVD project. Recently, the Tiger Band practice field was renamed the Dr. John H. Butler and Dr. Bruce F. Cook Tiger Band Plaza.

In his free time, Cook was actively involved in volunteer projects for Clemson Community Care, membership in St. Andrews Catholic Church and Tiger Brotherhood, and social activities as a member of the Clemson Fellowship.

Survived by his wife, Patricia Eakins Cook of Clemson, SC; his children, Timothy Cook (of Kennesaw, GA), Sean Cook (of Athens, GA), Aaron Cook (of Clemson, SC) and Heather Cook (of Greer, SC); daughters-in-law Michelle Cook of Kennesaw, GA and Sarah Cook of Athens, GA; two grandchildren, Brendan and Susannah, of Athens, GA, his sister, Lunette Dickson, of Lubbock, TX and an extended family of nieces, cousins, and generations of students and Tiger Band alumni, who he was privileged to teach and serve throughout his career. He was pre-deceased by his parents, Earl (1963), Dorothy (1991) and his older brother Raborn (1997).

Visitation will be held on Sunday, October 26, 2014, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., at Duckett-Robinson Funeral Home in Central. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Andrews Catholic Church in Clemson, by Fr. Dan McLellan, OFM. Interment and graveside services will be held immediately following the funeral at Woodland Cemetery, beside Memorial Stadium, where he spent many happy days directing Tiger Band.

The family has designated memorials to be given to the "Dr. Bruce Cook Memorial Fund" with checks made payable to the Clemson University Foundation and sent to that address at P.O. Box 1889; Clemson, SC 29633.
or to a music education program of your choice.

Condolences may be expressed online at robinsonfuneralhomes.com. The family extends its thanks to the many friends, family, colleagues, and students who shared their lives with "Daddy" Cook over the years.