(September 8, 1932 - April 2, 2021) James Wyatt Cook was born in Hickman, Kentucky, to William James Cook (also from Hickman) and Ladosca Kathleen Wyatt (of Selmer, Tennessee). Never has the oftused phrase “a gentleman and a scholar” been a more apt description of a person.

At the age of three, during the height of the depression, Cook migrated with his family to Detroit, where his father worked in the downtown post office. His early years were full of storytelling, poems, music, dance, jokes, and summers with extended family in Selmer. As the only child of rather protective parents, Cook had permission to spend long hours in the Detroit Public Library surrounded, as he was all of his life, by books.

Cook attended Bagley Elementary School and graduated from Mackenzie High School in Detroit in 1950. It was in 7th grade, at Tappen Intermediate School, that he met his soulmate and wife-to-be, Barbara Marie Collier, at a Friday night dance. During these formative years, he and Barbara played violin and viola in the Detroit Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Cook attended Albion College in Albion, Michigan, his freshman year, then returned home to complete his B.A. in English from Wayne State University (1954) before earning his M.A. in English from the University of Michigan (1955). He would later earn a Ph.D. in English from Wayne State University (1964), writing his dissertation on the medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

Immediately after James and Barbara were married in July of 1954, he was drafted and proudly served in the U.S. Army as part of the Southern European Task Force (SETAF), stationed at Lake Garda near Verona and Venice, Italy. In support of counterintelligence during the height of the Cold War, Cook traveled extensively and received valuable training in world languages, including Italian, German, French, and Spanish.

In 1962, the couple returned to Albion when Cook accepted a position as a professor of English at Albion College, where he eventually retired as professor emeritus. The young family put down roots in their beloved new hometown with children Chris, Kathy, and David.

Cook's scholarship, prolific writings, and range of accomplishments reflect a man for all seasons. As one former student marveled, “like his namesake explorer, James Cook, he was superbly fearless in crossing meridians of academic disciplines to bring fresh and creative insight into the standard, established, and cloyed.”

The author or co-author of more than ten books, including scholarly studies on Chaucer, Lorenzo de' Medici, and Francesco Petrarch, Cook also published verse translations from the Italian for Petrarch's Canzoniere, de' Medici's II Commento, Antonia Tannini Pulci's religious drama, and Isabella Andreini, as well as historical biographies. Two of his major reference works-Encyclopedia of Renaissance Literature (2006) and Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature (2008)-were published by Facts on File and are found in libraries around the world.

Cook had been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the British Academy, the Newberry Library in Chicago, and the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies and the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto. In 1970, he represented the Great Lakes Colleges Association as a guest of the Government of India and was instrumental in establishing Indian studies programs at several of the member institutions. In his own words, he was “a certified archival stack rat.”

A businessman and entrepreneur, Cook served as a consultant for the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business for more than twenty years. He also co-founded a successful instructional design and consulting firm, Validated Instruction Associates, which had clients that included the United States Navy, the state of Michigan's Department of Social Services, the U.S. Department of Defense, the University of Southern California, and the state of Illinois for the statewide implementation of Public Law 94142-the Act of Congress guaranteeing a full and appropriate education for children with special needs.

Cook was proud of the lifelong relationships he built with students and colleagues throughout his career. These friendships, which brought Cook great joy, continued even after his retirement as professor and English department chair at Albion College, and it was not uncommon for former students and colleagues to visit Cook at his home near Traverse City, Michigan.

James and Barbara shared many personal interests, including summers at her family's cottage on remote Lake Manitouwabing in McKellar, Ontario, Canada; playing violin in the Albion College Orchestra and String Quartet; and rooting for the University of Michigan football team. An eternal optimist and a man with many friends, James Cook's laugh was a contagious and full-bodied affair that could transform into an involuntary wheeze with the right material.

Cook was predeceased by his wife (Barbara) in 2020 and is survived by their three children, Chris (Sharon), Kathy (Dean), and David (Allison), as well as six grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any charitable contributions in James Cook's name go toward helping the youth of Albion attend Albion College. Donations can be made via the following address or website: Build Albion Fellows Program at Albion College 611 E. Porter St., Albion, MI 49224 www.albion.edu/giving