National Medal of Technology (1988)[1][2] Bay Area Council's Bay Area Business Hall of Fame Award (1999)[1] Paul M. Cook (April 25, 1924[5][6] – December 14, 2020) was an American businessman who was the founder and CEO of Raychem, a chemical manufacturing company that reached $2 billion in annual revenue.
In 1988, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology "[f]or his vision and entrepreneurial efforts, his technical accomplishments and his business and technical leadership as the key contributor in creating a worldwide chemically based industry."
[6][7] After he graduated high school in 1941, he started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), studying chemical engineering under Warren K.
Cook was then sent to Hunter Liggett Military Reservation and then Fort Benning, where he completed Officer Candidate School.
[1] He went on to lead SRI's Radiation Chemistry Laboratory, where he was interested in using high-energy electrons to alter polymers.