[1] Named for an uncle who died in World War I, he graduated from Middlebury College in 1940[2] and became an aeronautical engineer at Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, Connecticut.
[3] Cook joined the United States Army Air Forces for World War II and served as a navigator.
From 1948 to 1955 he was an attorney for the United States Department of the Navy, and he earned a master's degree from Georgetown University Law School in 1952.
[10] During his Senate service Cook was a leader in passing legislation that removed billboards from Vermont's roadsides.
[12] In 1969 Cook was appointed to succeed Joseph F. Radigan as United States Attorney for Vermont by President Richard M. Nixon, and he held the office until 1977.