School of Education

IU School of Education remembers Bill Cook as a strong supporter of education

Monday, April 18, 2011

It is with profound sadness we at the Indiana University School of Education note the passing of William A. Cook, founder of Cook Group Inc., on April 15, 2011. Bill Cook is known as one of the nation’s leading entrepreneurs and businessmen as well as a philanthropist virtually unmatched in his support of many worthy causes, including education. We are grateful that one of the ways Bill and Gayle Cook supported it is though teacher education at the IU School of Education.

The Cook family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations in the memory of Bill Cook go to the Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Fund in Teacher Education.  The Armstrong Teacher Educator program began in the 1997-98 academic year as a way to promote the development of Indiana’s best teachers. Superintendents and principals from around the state nominate teachers based on patterns of outstanding teaching and school leadership. The nominees must also demonstrate a potential to work effectively as mentors and role models for pre-service teachers.  Armstrong teachers invite IU students and faculty to visit their classrooms and also work with campus-based courses, panel discussions, field experience sites, student teaching seminars, research projects, and many other activities. 

An endowment established through a gift from the Cook Group Companies, Inc. of Bloomington provided the startup funding. The endowment also supports the Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Chair in Teacher Education, a position currently occupied by Mathematics Education Professor Peter Kloosterman.   Professors Diana Lambdin, Frank Lester and Jerry Harste have also served in this role.  

“Bill Cook was a remarkable man who exemplified the best qualities of those whose lives have made a positive difference in the world,” said Gerardo M. Gonzalez, dean of the IU School of Education. “The gift he made to the School of Education in honor of Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong to establish the Armstrong Teacher Educator program has made possible what is indisputably one of the nation’s premier university/school partnerships.  He endeavored to make life better for everyone he touched and did so in many different and meaningful ways.  Indeed, the world is a better place because of Mr. Cook.  All of us in the School feel fortunate and honored to have known him.  His kindness and leadership will be sorely missed.”

The Cooks designated a $1 million gift to Indiana University in honor of longtime friends Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong. Bill Armstrong, who passed away in 1998, was president of the IU foundation for 31 years. Martha Lea was a teacher in Texas and Kentucky.  She died in 2005.

When Cook asked the couple to choose where the money went, they said they both felt strongly about supporting good teachers. “We felt that if we could do anything at all for the young people and for the profession that has more to do with helping to keep this country what it is, that is what we wanted to do,” Bill Armstrong said in the Fall 1995 issue of Chalkboard magazine, the alumni publication of the IU School of Education Alumni Association.
 
“The Armstrongs and I share a commitment to excellence in education,” Cook said in the same issue, “and it is my hope and belief that the Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Fund in Teacher Education will have a significant impact on the quality of education in our state and beyond.”

Since then, the program has become a model for promoting teacher professional development. The most recent class of Armstrong Teachers includes Indiana’s Teacher of the Year. Past participants have included Milken Award winners and recipients of the Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship. More than a hundred Indiana teachers have been honored as Armstrong teachers, a recognition of teaching excellence in their individual and collective careers. 

The program has created a network of professionals who not only spend their Armstrong year exploring education and teaching issues but return for Armstrong alumni events.  “I come back to the retreat every year,” said Steve Park at the annual summer retreat for Armstrong Teacher Educators in 2009. Park became an Armstrong Teacher Educator in 1999 as a science and communication teacher at Riverview Middle School in Huntington. “We get some updates on education, and we get an idea of how other teachers are using new strategies in the classroom, but just as important we get to meet with colleagues, reconnect and develop those friendships. We get to hang out with people who share similar passions to ourselves.”

“We really felt pride in receiving the award 10 years ago,” said Gladys Stephens, 3rd grade teacher at Mary L. Daly Elementary in Elkhart, who said the selected teachers continue to build on their abilities through Armstrong connections. “Coming back and seeing that other people are getting that same recognition and sensing the pride that they must feel and seeing the things that they’re doing, it lets you know that you can do some of those things.”

The support the Cooks provided to the Armstrong Teachers program reflected their desire to advance education across the board in the state of Indiana.  Partly through the Cook’s support, Bloomington opened a New Tech high school in 2008. Harmony Education Center in Bloomington benefited from the Cook family’s work in helping it renovate an old school building to meet its needs. Aside from the School of Education at IU, at least 61 disciplines and departments have received support from Bill and Gayle Cook. The Cooks have contributed to 5 of the 8 IU campuses.

More information about the Armstrong Teacher Educator Award is available on the Armstrong Teacher Educator website.