Frank C. Cook (June 9, 1963 – August 19, 2009) was an American ethnobotanist, humanitarian, and educator who traveled the world studying plants and learning from the healers of various traditions while offering classes[1] with a unique exchange model of 'give what you can; receive what you need'.
He facilitated mead circles; taught at schools and in homes, gardens and the woods; spoke at conferences; and played a prominent role at educational gatherings around the world.
He expanded minds and aroused higher consciousness through his travel journals, his botany talks, and his way of living by donation and by taking people to their edges and asking questions such as, "What plants will be with us in this planetary culture rising?
"[citation needed] He firmly believed that we are in the midst of great changes on the planet and that it is our awareness and daily choices that will determine what quality of a future we have as people of one interconnected world.
[7] From the late 1990s until his death, Cook studied and taught with a wide range of well-known and respected plant teachers including: Dr. James A. Duke, 7Song,[8] Doug Elliott, Alan Muskat, Juliet Blankespoor, Chuck Marsh, Christopher Hobbs, CoreyPine Shane, Greenlight, Daniel Nicholson, John Olmstead, and Sandor Katz.
Cook also taught at the Appalachia School of Holistic Herbalism in Asheville, NC as well as online classes using the book Botany in a Day,[9] workshops abroad [9] and led plant walks at Wild Roots and Rainbow Gatherings.
In his pursuit to connect with over 5,000 plant genera with which he felt intuitively linked, he braved some of nature's most dangerous challenges, including malaria, and perhaps the parasite that caused his fatal case of neurocysticercosis.