MAGLJCook
JAMES EUGENE COOK 1927-2018
- MM Sagamihara #13 (Japan) 1958
- Affiliated Army, 1974
- District Grand Master (Panama), 1996-1998
MEMORIAL
From Proceedings, Page 2018-228:
James Eugene Cook, a Past District Grand Master for the Panama Canal District of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, died in Panama on August 28, 2018. The following memorial is provided as a supplement to the 2018 Proceedings of the Grand Lodge; his necrology appears on Page 84 of this volume.
James E. Cook devoted his life to Masonry, from the time he came to the Craft in Sagimahara Lodge in Japan in 1958 until his passing in 2018. Brother Cook was born in Arkansas in 1927 and spent much of his youth there and in Oklahoma. His father was a laborer, whose weekends were occupied as a Southern Baptist preacher. He was one of four children; he had an older brother and two younger sisters. He joined the United States Army but was too young to serve in the Second World War; he was posted overseas, first in Japan and then in Germany, where he worked in intelligence, learning the native languages to aid in his work as an interpreter. He was an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Sergeant Major, and did a tour in Vietnam, where he survived a terrible helicopter crash, of which he was the only survivor. During his time there he was awarded the Bronze Star for heroic service.
In the late 1960s Brother Cook was posted to Panama, where he married for a second time in 1974 to his beloved Lolita, who survives him, and where his son Christopher was born. He affiliated with Army Lodge, which, through a series of mergers, has become a part of Gatun Lodge. For many years he was devoted to the Fraternity, both at the Blue Lodge level, and with Abou Saad Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., in which he was very active in arranging transportation for burns victims and children in need of orthopedic care at our Shrine Hospitals. He served as Potentate in 1989 and again in 2001.
A more friendly, caring Brother could scarcely be found in our Panama Canal District. Faithful to his name, our Brother served for many years as cook for the Masonic bodies in Panama, and was a trusted counsel and contributor both in the Massachusetts Lodges and in the Panamanian ones, as he was a founding member of Harmony #18 in Panama City. In 1992 he was awarded the Joseph Warren Medal for Distinguished Service.
From 1996 to 1998, Brother Cook was District Grand Master of the Panama Canal District, by appointment of M. W. Arthur E. Johnson, whom he received in 1997 for his official visit to the District. He was present in the District Grand Lodge in February 2017, for the celebration of the centenary of the District.
On August 28, 2018, Brother Cook was called to the Celestial Lodge above after lengthy illness. In a letter to the members of his lodge, Wor. Jorge Rodriguez, then Presiding Master, wrote that R. W. Brother Cook was “an exemplary brother of true Masonic values for all to follow . . . He will be missed by all who knew him.”
