Fall kills Moultrie native

Published 2:49 pm Tuesday, December 6, 2005





Staff Reports



JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 70-year-old Moultrie native died Saturday in Scotland after a fall.

Charles Cook, a retired Jacksonville, Fla., Port Authority official, suffered a broken neck when he missed a step and fell headfirst into a granite bench, according to his stepson, Chris Sutton of Jacksonville, quoted in the Florida Times-Union’s Tuesday edition.

“It was just a tragic, freak accident that could have happened anytime, anywhere,” Sutton told the Jacksonville newspaper. “The last of the five courses we played was the famed St. Andrews. What a way to go out.”

Cook, son of lifelong Moultrie residents Pearl and Clinton Cook, grew up on the Quitman Highway across from Spence Field, according to his brother, Henry Cook. Their father worked for T.F. Taylor, who ran gin and fertilizer operations throughout the area, and about the beginning of World War II Clinton Cook started his own automobile repair shop near his home.

Cook left Moultrie as a young man when his National Guard unit was activated during the Korean War, his brother said; he served most of his stint around Battle Creek, Mich. Henry Cook was working at the Jacksonville City Engineer’s Office, and Charles Cook joined him after he was released from active duty.

Cook worked with the Jacksonville Port Authority when it was first formed in 1964, his brother said. He was named aviation director in charge of the city’s airports in 1975.

He left the Port Authority in 1979 to join his former boss, Dave Rawls, in Port Carriers Inc. on Blount Island. When Rawls died, the company was dissolved and Cook ran his own warehouse company for a while, Henry Cook said. He retired in 1986 to look after real estate investments.

Henry Cook said his brother was an outdoorsman and an avid University of Florida sports fan.

The body is being cremated in Scotland, and a memorial serivce will be held later at Isle of Faith United Methodist Church in Jacksonville.



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