Harry Dean Cooke III |
| Posted 2024-04-24 by Sharla |
| The Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, AZ Wednesday, April 24, 2024 ~ Page A-5 Harry Dean Cooke III September 22, 1940 – April 5, 2024 Harry ‘Dean’ Cooke, III peacefully passed from this life to the next on Friday, April 5th, 2024. His wife, Genevieve, and son, Alex, were bedside. After a series of major health events, Dean spent 6 days in Huntsville Hospital’s Hospice Family Care surrounded by family. When Dean was born (September 22,1940), his dad, Harry Cooke Jr (Fuzz) worked at the Vulture Gold mine in Wickenburg…his mom (Shirley S. Cooke) was a stay-at-home mom, having been a nurse earlier, at Wickenburg Hospital where his parents met and where Dean was born. His dad left the mine shortly thereafter and began working for the highway dept. They moved to Deming, New Mexico temporarily, where there was road work. Almost 2 years after Dean was born, his grandfather drove to Deming to get his mom (9 months pregnant) and Dean, and drive them back to Wickenburg in an old Model T (no air-conditioning or any modern conveniences) for the birth of his sister, Pat (born August 8, 1942). His second sister, Barbara (born November 18, 1943, was also born in Wickenburg. When Dean was about 4, they moved back to the Vulture mine, as the mine had reopened again. When he was close to 5, they moved back to Wickenburg so Dean could go to kindergarten. Dean completed 13 years of schooling in Wickenburg (K-12). During his grade school years he was the spelling champ several times and went to Divisionals once. Dean also played in Little League baseball and Pony League. He was active in sports, playing football, basketball and baseball during high school. He was also the president of the Wickenburg branch of the National Honor Society and went to Boys State, which was only attained by being at the top part of the class and recommended by teachers. When Dean was in early grade school, he started mowing yards for money. He made enough to buy himself a power mower of his own and continued mowing yards. At 12 years of age, he acquired a newspaper route (which he delivered on his bike with bags strewn over handlebars). That was a 7-day/week job. He earned enough there to buy a motor scooter to make the job easier, which proved to be the genesis of his love of motorcycles later in life. This job continued until high school when sports took over his free time. Dean’s dad began building projects such as sheds, then soon started a business, and built a house for the family around early 1946. The business, Cooke Brothers Construction, was started by his dad, Harry, and Harry’s brothers, Dan and Dick. The partnership didn’t last long and Harry carried on the business, himself, for about 35 years. Many beautiful houses and friendships resulted from those 35 years. During the summers, his dad (Harry) hired kids from school to do clean up and extra work on housing jobs. Dean was always among this summer work crew. During his junior year in high school, Dean contacted the AZ congressman, John Rhodes, and applied to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Dean was the first person in the small town to do so. A neighbor, businessman, and teacher (Don Kerr) had a very clean, beautiful, old, Model ‘A’ Ford. He lent the car to Dean and told him, if he agreed to play sports all year, he could keep the Model ‘A’ until he went to Annapolis. Dean painted a red stripe on the car, put in a radio and drove it for the remainder of high school. Graduation from Wickenburg High School was held in May of 1958. By June, Dean was on his way to Tucson to catch a transport plane for Annapolis, MD. His mother had a hard time adjusting to losing her first born so soon after high school. And he couldn’t come home until Christmas of same year. The flight took 17 hours. Little did Dean know that another recent high school grad, Dan Condon, who was also headed to Annapolis on that plane would be one of his roommates and a close friend for 66 years. After Dean graduated from the Naval Academy in 1962 with an Engineering degree, he decided that being in just 1 service wasn’t good enough. Dean joined the US Air Force and earned his wings at Moody AFB. He served as an Air Force F4C Phantom jet pilot and squadron leader for 5 years, serving in Vietnam. After completion of all 300 missions and while awaiting to go home, Dean volunteered for a search and rescue mission in a helicopter. He was severely injured by ground fire, hospitalized for several months, and flown back to the US to Bethesda Military Hospital, where he was awarded the Purple Heart. And so ended his military career. After serving in the military, Dean continued to serve his country as a defense contractor for Army’s SENTINEL and SAFEGUARD systems as an analyst at McDonnell Douglas / Martin Marietta (today’s Lockheed Martin) for 18 years. He then moved to Coleman Research Corporation (CRC) in 1985, now part of SAIC, continuing to work and develop interceptor technologies for President Reagan’s “Star Wars” organization known as Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) and the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system that is deployed around the world protecting our troops and allies. Dean also worked on the interceptor kill vehicle (KV) concepts that became the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) and today’s Aegis warship missiles that intercept incoming missiles in space. He eventually became the Technical Director of CRC’s Washington Operations. After 40 years of service to our nation, Dean tried retirement from 1998 until 2003, but decided his missile defense expertise was still needed, returning to the workforce at Sparta (now called Parsons) to work for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Dean moved from Northern Virginia and the Greater Washington, DC area to Huntsville, AL in 2008, when a large portion of the MDA workforce transitioned south as part of the Base Realignment And Closure (BRAC). After a total of 47 years contributing to our national and worldwide defense, Dean retired from Sparta / Parsons in 2010. By 2011, he was volunteering at the Huntsville Botanical Garden (HBG) installing, wiring, uninstalling, repairing, etc. HBG’s nationally recognized Galaxy of Lights holiday displays. Dean loved being a Galaxy Guy. Other past times included motorcycling, especially with the Christian Motorcyclists Association (CMA), which we joined in 1997 when Genevieve (wife) learned to ride, running the projector during services at Huntsville Christian Church, attending and hosting small group home Bible studies, and spending as much time as possible with family and friends. One tradition was hosting grandchildren and their cousins (up to 8 total) for Grandma and Grandpa’s Boot Camp. Usually lasting at least 2 or more weeks, Boot Camp included an overnight week at Huntsville’s Aviation Challenge, which was held at the US Space and Rocket Center. We still hear stories. Dean was a fun-loving yet quiet, unassuming, humble, man of faith, who loved the Lord, his family, his country, and coffee. He is survived by his sister Patty (Cooke) Doom, his wife of 30 years Genevieve (Cody) Cooke, sons Patrick (Nancy) Cooke, Alex (Angelia) Cooke, Douglas Cooke, daughter Liane (Branislav) Chudy, stepson Cody (Morgan) Smith, stepdaughter Rebecca (Smith) Tigner; grandchildren Rachel (Brandon) Brouwer, Joshua (Hannah) Cooke, Christopher Cooke, Emily Cooke, Kira (Cody) Provincial, Owen (Cody) Smith, Quinn (Rebecca) Fisher, Andrew (Cody) Smith; great-grandchildren Parker Brouwer and his brother Connor Brouwer, as well as 2 nephews, Sam and Andrew Doom,1 niece, Danelle Doom, and their progeny. Dean will be sorely missed by all, until we meet again “on the other side”. A Celebration of Dean’s Life will be held Saturday, April 27th, at Huntsville Christian Church 171 Indian Creek Road NW, Huntsville, AL 35806. The Celebration will include slides and music (1-3pm); remembrances, stories and tributes (3-4pm); heavy hors d’oeuvres (4-5pm). If you are unable to attend, consider leaving a story or memory of Dean on this website. Please help us turn sadness into joy. Valhalla Funeral Home & Memory Gardens See Also: Find A Grave |
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