Robert (Bob) William Joseph Cooke was born on August 2, 1940, in Edmonton to Gladys and Murray Cooke, the first son of a family of six children. He loved the outdoors from a young age, often telling stories of chasing giant pollywogs in the slaughterhouse runoff creek. As a young teen, he ran a trap line northwest of Edmonton, catching ermine and mink to sell to the furriers. Early “jobs” included helping the milkman deliver milk on his block (earning him a small pint of chocolate milk as payment) and driving the bread delivery wagon, where he was one of the few who wouldn’t jump off when the horses bolted.
Bob met his future wife, Judy, in junior high. He was active at Vic Composite High School, participating in football, student government, and track. After high school, he graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta, where he also played varsity football for the Golden Bears and briefly joined the semi-pro Edmonton Wildcats. He spent summers working at uranium mines in Eldorado near the Arctic Circle and as a surveyor near Medicine Hat.
Upon graduation, he and Judy married and headed east to Sarnia, Ontario, in their VW bug, where he took his first engineering job in petrochemicals. Later, the call of the sea led him to the University of Rhode Island for graduate studies in Oceanography. Their first daughter, Janice, was born in 1965, followed by Jillian in 1969.
The family moved west to Issaquah, WA, where Bob led a pioneering ocean mining project with INCO, raising valuable manganese nodules from the Pacific Ocean seabed. Certified for SCUBA while on board, he cherished diving among California’s kelp beds with otters. When the project ended, Bob shifted his focus to art, becoming a self-taught bronze sculptor with pieces in private and public collections worldwide, often depicting nature and wildlife.
Bob was also an avid skier, recalling heliskiing in the Bugaboos, New Year’s at Whistler, and patrolling at Alpental east of Seattle. Driving back to Edmonton for Christmas and summer holidays, he earned the nickname “Joe Edmonchuk” for his ability to drive 14 hours straight through Rocky Mountain storms.
As part of an ocean expedition, Bob helped locate the sunken WWII Japanese submarine I-52 in the Pacific, rumored to be filled with gold bars. This endeavor later became a National Geographic TV special and the book ‘Operation Rising Sun’.
Bob and Judy built a cottage on Salt Spring Island, BC, spending their retirement years between there and Green Valley, AZ, enjoying camping, bird watching, racquetball, golf, tennis, hiking, and even kayaking whitewater rivers. Their travels took them to places as diverse as Iceland, Malta, Japan, Portugal, Australia, the Galapagos Islands, and beyond.
Known to friends, family, and colleagues as a man with vision, Bob lived true to himself, embraced great adventures, and walked to his own drumbeat. Facing health challenges, he and Judy moved to assisted living in West Vancouver in 2021 to be closer to family. He passed away on October 30, 2024, at the age of 84 after a long battle with vascular dementia.
He is survived by his beloved wife of over 62 years, Judy; daughters Jillian and Janice; granddaughters Kate, Elizabeth, and Sarah; brothers Ken (Karina), Alan (Vicky), and Don (Jill); and sister Lynne (Jim).
Celebrations of life details to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations to Alzheimer’s or Dementia research foundations are welcomed. May he sail smooth waters and ski deep powder forevermore.