HR1090 LRB094 20097 HSS 57707 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, A banquet will be held on Saturday, April 8, 2006,
3 for the Reverend Lee Grant Cook in honor of his 40-year
4 anniversary and retirement; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Pastor Cook came from a family of humble
6 circumstances; he lived with his parents, Deacon Dorsey Cook
7 and Mother Virginia Cook, and his older sisters, Cleo and the
8 late Bessie Cook, in a one-room house in Montgomery, Alabama;
9 at the age of ten, he was converted and baptized at the New
10 Canaan Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama; and
 
11     WHEREAS, It was at that church that his educational career
12 began in a one-room church and school house; he finished
13 Loveless Jr. High School and attended Tuskegee Institute, where
14 he met the grandson of Booker T. Washington; he then graduated
15 from Booker T. Washington Sr. High School; and
 
16     WHEREAS, He became a carpenter in 1938 in Montgomery, and
17 he helped build the 99th Air Force Base in Tuskegee, Alabama;
18 in 1948, he became a member of the United Brotherhood of
19 Carpenters and Joiners and is still a member in good standing
20 today; he moved to Chicago in 1943, but then went on to Atlanta
21 six months later; and
 
22     WHEREAS, Rev. Cook was working at an atomic bomb plant in
23 Tennessee on VJ Day in August of 1945; after the bomb hit
24 Nagasaki, he left his job; his father died in 1948, and Rev.
25 Cook returned to Alabama, then moving with part of his family
26 to Chicago; and
 
27     WHEREAS, He joined Omega Baptist Church in 1948, where he
28 served as Superintendent of Sunday School and sang in the
29 choir; he later joined South Side Missionary Baptist Church;
30 this church ordained him as a deacon and when his calling to

 

 

HR1090 - 2 - LRB094 20097 HSS 57707 r

1 the ministry became evident, he accepted the call and
2 immediately enrolled in the Chicago Baptist Institute, where he
3 was a student for four years; he was licensed by Rev. Rudolph
4 Poole and in 1951, he was ordained; he served as the assistant
5 pastor at South Side Church until the death of Rev. Poole in
6 1954; and
 
7     WHEREAS, Rev. Cook served as president of the graduating
8 class of 1958; he was conferred with the degree of Doctor of
9 Divinity by Hamilton State University of Tucson, Arizona, in
10 March of 1975; and
 
11     WHEREAS, He became pastor of True Believers Missionary
12 Baptist Church on April 17, 1966; his motto is "We have climbed
13 the hill. The mountain is still before us. We must continue the
14 task of winning the World for Christ. Then, and only then, can
15 we truly say our work is done."; therefore, be it
 
16     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
17 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
18 we congratulate the Reverend Lee Grant Cook on the occasion of
19 his 40-year anniversary and retirement; and be it further
 
20     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
21 presented to Rev. Cook as an expression of our esteem.