Charles Stanley Cook, 98. Kingston

Charles Stanley Cook, 98, of Kingston, passed away peacefully on June 14 at Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge. Stan was born on Aug. 8, 1925, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Charles B. Cook and Mildred B. Cook, and graduated from Hot Springs High School. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Tulane University and was an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He was commissioned as a supply officer in the U.S. Navy in World War II and served aboard two ships, the USS Woodward and the USS Rockingham. While serving on the USS Rockingham he had the unique experience of participating in the first airborne test of dropped nuclear weapons on ships at Bikini Island in the Pacific. Later, he was recalled for two years additional service during the Korean War, and he served as a fueling officer at the Boston Naval shipyard. He began his working career as a radio announcer in high school where he worked part-time at KTHS in Arkansas, and he later worked as a radio announcer at WJBW in New Orleans and WDOD in Chattanooga. His working career also included working in production control at the DuPont nylon plant in Chattanooga, serving as operations manager and later president of Bryson Oil Company in Harriman, Tennessee, working in central accounting at Union Carbide in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then becoming an administrative officer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Biology Division, at Y-12 for 24 years until retirement in 1990. Stan and his late wife Peggy were active members of Kingston United Methodist Church where they joined in 1955, and he was the last living incorporator of the present church. He served in many capacities at the church including trustee, chairman of several committees, youth Sunday school teacher, Boy Scout leader, adult Sunday school leader, and a longtime choir member.

Stan had many and diverse interests and he never saw an activity that he did not find something of interest to learn about. However, his primary concern and priority was the guidance and love for his family and their welfare. Stan maintained that God had blessed him far more than he could ever deserve, and he said that God’s greatest gift to him was his family. He always put his family first. Stan’s greatest legacy to his family was the lifetime gift he bestowed upon them — his time, his guidance, his wisdom, his support, his concern, his love.

A loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, Stan was preceded in death by his wife Peggy Bryson Cook, his sister Dorothy Bouldine, and his parents Charles B. Cook and Mildred B. Cook of Chattanooga. He is survived by his children John Charles Cook and wife Grace, James Stanley Cook and wife Susan, Nancy Cook White and husband Peter, Marti Cook King, and husband Marty, and Thomas Edwin Cook and wife Kelly, and 13 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.

Services will be held at Kyker Funeral Home in Kingston on Saturday, June 29th with family visitation from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM, a Celebration of Life at 11:30 AM followed by burial services at Roane Memorial Gardens. Rev. Mark Davis will officiate. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Covenant Health Home Care and Hospice: 3001 Lake Brook Blvd., Suite 101, Knoxville, TN 37909. Kyker Funeral Home of Kingston is serving the Cook Family.