[2][1] Cookingham received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Detroit Institute of Technology.

[2] After leaving the Army in 1919, Cookingham returned to work for the railroad at Danville and then became a bookkeeper in Flint, Michigan.

[1][2] From 1933 to 1934, Cookingham served as deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Association in Wayne County, Michigan.

[2][citation needed] In 1937, Cookingham became vice president of the International City/County Management Association.

However, the era was also marked by patronage jobs and no-bid contracts, all covered up by McElroy's "country bookkeeping."

He was to oversee a period when Kansas City through annexations more than doubled in area from 60 to 130 square miles (340 km2) —- mostly north of the Missouri River.

Cookingham oversaw the construction of a brand new jet port north of the Missouri River, which would become Kansas City International Airport, including the construction of a city-owned overhaul base that was leased back to TWA to repair its worldwide fleet of planes.

The freeway system in the Kansas City metropolitan area is credited in large part to Cookingham’s planning.

During the occasion, a time capsule was buried near the entrance to Saginaw’s City Hall scheduled to be opened in 2036.

[1][2] Cookingham died on July 22, 1992, at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, at the age of 95.

[1] The University of Missouri–Kansas City conferred upon him the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters on May 12, 1979 and later named the L.P. Cookingham Institute of Urban Affairs at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management, UMKC after him.