Don Cook brought the qualities of patience and service to his roles in teaching, administration, sport and family.
OBITUARY
Don Cook
Patience and service were qualities Don Cook brought to his roles as teacher, administrator, cricket umpire, Rotarian and family man.
Donald Ferguson Cook died in Gisborne this month, aged 81.
He had strong links to Gisborne Boys’ High School. His father Reg taught there, Don attended as a pupil, returned as a teacher and served on the school board of trustees.
Those links were recalled by Boys’ High principal Tom Cairns in a tribute at Cook’s funeral.
Reg Cook started with Gisborne Boys’ High in 1936, teaching French, and was the school’s career adviser for more than 20 years. He coached the First XI cricket team for 20 years, and also coached rugby and helped train the school’s cadets.
Don was a student at the school from 1958 to the end of 1962. He was a prefect, a well-established member of the First XI cricket team under Murray Sharp, and second five-eighth in the First XV.
The Cook/Boys’ High “legacy” continued in 1976 when, now as Dr Cook (with a PhD in Chemistry behind him), he took a job at Gisborne Boys’ High.
He taught science and mathematics, but his influence stretched beyond those subjects.
Don was “one of those solid men – those fatherly figures we looked up to as children, who we knew were fair, talked straight ... and showed young men how to behave, through their actions”, Cairns said.
At cricket, from behind the stumps, wicketkeeper Don would offer batting advice. When batting or umpiring he would offer advice on field placements to youthful opponents – “always the teacher, always genuine and always pleased when young guys did well ... a man of character”.
In the 1980s, Don left Boys’ High to set up the Tairāwhiti Polytechnic science department, but he returned as a school board trustee, was chairman in 1992 and stayed on the board until 1997.
He also took a keen interest in Boys’ High cricket and rugby, particularly when his sons Simon and Matthew were playing.
In retirement, Don did some relief teaching.
“The boys enjoyed his fairness, good humour and advice,” Cairns said.
“They liked to have Mr Cook, Cookie, The Doctor, the Don, the Cookie Monster teaching their classes.”
Elder son Simon described his father’s experiences growing up in 1950s Gisborne.
Born on December 13, 1944, and the eldest of three children, Don had a Gisborne childhood featuring “swimming and picnics at Midway and Makorori beaches, summer camping at Ōhope, and playing cricket in the back yard” of their Palmerston Rd house.
The whole family and a giant canvas tent were bundled into an old Holden and they spent the summer holidays in Ōhope. In storms, Don and Reg could be up in the middle of the night digging a trench around the tent to prevent flooding.
Don’s early education was at Central School and Gisborne Intermediate. At Boys’ High he was runner-up to dux and received the Frank Foote Prize for all-round scholastic and sporting achievement.
Also at Boys’ High, he began an enduring friendship with Rob Crawford. They both played cricket but took divergent career paths – Cook to teaching and Crawford to law (he is a retired High Court judge living in Vancouver).
They kept in touch, meeting as often as possible. Rob Crawford’s message, read out at the funeral, recalled his friend’s even temper, firm resolve, generous nature, measured speech, wide view of the world, his pleasure living in the calm of the East Coast, the care and love with which he surrounded his wife Anne, and the pride he had in his children.
Don studied chemistry at Victoria University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1965, then gaining his Masters and PhD.
Simon Cook said his parents met in Wellington. Don was out one night when a car pulled over and the occupants sought directions to the same party he was heading for.
In the car was a young woman from Central Hawke’s Bay. Don asked for her phone number and memorised it. They were married in Waipukurau in 1971.
“Mum used to say it was his voice she first fell in love with,” Simon said.
In 1972, Don got a research fellowship to the University of Sheffield, and he and Anne indulged their love of travel and turned the voyage into a honeymoon.
After two years that included the birth of daughter Caroline, they returned to New Zealand. Don did post-doctorate studies at the University of Auckland, then taught at Auckland Girls’ Grammar.
He returned to Gisborne, joined the Rugby Old Boys cricket team and played into his 50s, then took to umpiring.
Backyard cricket was still a family staple, as were trips north to Ōhope but also south to Waipukurau, most of them in a brown Datsun Sunny, with car-sick children.
The bathroom window at their Iranui Rd house happened to be at square leg for backyard cricket, and was replaced “numerous times”.
“Dad was a remarkably understanding man,” Simon said.
“The only time he really got angry with us about breaking it was the one time we did it while trying out baseball in the back yard. I don’t think it was really about the broken window.”
Matt Cook said no one could question Don’s honesty as an umpire. He gave Matt “out” on a hat-trick ball more than once. He was also umpiring when Matt took a hat-trick, and was slow giving the third batsman out “even though he later said it was plumb LBW”.
Don enjoyed friendship and the satisfaction of community contribution through his 34-year membership of Rotary, first with the Gisborne West club and then with the amalgamated Gisborne club. He took particular interest in the scientific and life development courses on offer to young people.
Don’s wife Anne died in July 2023.
Don and Anne are survived by daughter Caroline, sons Simon and Matthew, and grandchildren Sophie, Will, Hugo and Lucy.
– Obituary by John Gillies