Charles D. Cook

Born in Deposit, New York, Cook graduated from Hancock Central School in 1952, and received his bachelor's degree in political science from Hartwick College in 1956, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

In 1965, he entered public service when he was elected Delaware County treasurer and moved to Delhi, New York in December of that year.

He was credited in helping to maintain a $10,000,000 annual budgetary appropriation to support rural hospitals in diversifying and expanding outpatient services, a program that is still in operation.

He was appointed by President George H. W. Bush and his Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan to the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health, and was summoned to the White House to meet with the president in 1992 as a representative of New York State in discussions concerning the proposed Balanced Budget Amendment.

As chairman of the senate Education Committee, he was the original author of what ultimately became the STAR program for relief of school property taxes for New York residents.

Cook helped broker a crucial agreement between New York City and upstate communities in resolution of the heated and protracted controversy regarding watershed regulations in the Catskill mountain region, and he authored original early intervention legislation that provided for early identification, diagnosis, and treatment of developmental disabilities in children.