William Cook (entrepreneur)
| William Cook | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 27, 1931 Mattoon, Illinois, United States |
| Died | April 15, 2011 (aged 80) Bloomington, Indiana, United States |
| Education | Northwestern University |
| Occupation | Business executive, philanthropist |
| Spouse(s) | Gayle Cook |
| Children | Carl Cook |
William Alfred "Bill" Cook (January 27, 1931 – April 15, 2011), an American entrepreneur, philanthropist and historic preservationist, co-founded the medical equipment manufacturer Cook Group with his wife Gayle Cook in 1963. He resided in Bloomington, Indiana and was one of America's wealthiest men.
Cook was born in Mattoon, Illinois, and he grew up and graduated from high school in Canton, Illinois where he was a letterman in football, basketball, and track. He majored in biology at Northwestern University where he joined Beta Theta Pi fraternity and graduated in 1953. He had planned to go on to medical school, but was drafted into the army, where he served his two-year stint as a surgical technician. Bill married Gayle Karch in 1957, and they had a son (now an executive within the Cook Group), Carl, in 1962. In 1963, the Cook family moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where they started the company in their apartment that was eventually to become the Cook Group. For his many contributions to society, Cook was honored with honorary degrees from Northwestern University, Indiana University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Marian College (now Marian University), and Vincennes University.
Initially making medical devices, including guidewires for catheter angiography, Bill Cook and his wife Gayle started Cook Group in a spare bedroom in their Bloomington, Indiana apartment in 1963. They collaborated with many of the founders of Interventional Radiology, including Dr. Charles Dotter, to grow Cook, Inc. into the world's largest family-owned medical device manufacturer. Notable products included the Spectrum antibiotic-impregnated catheter (Rifamphin/Minocycline); the Gianturco-Roubin coronary stent, the first coronary stent approved for use in the USA; the first paclitaxel-coated drug-eluting stent, the Supra-G, tested in Asia; and the V-Flex, tested in Europe.
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