Retirement to State Capitol

Local 1 Minnesota/North Dakota Gold Card member and retired masonry contractor Herb Cook has a knack for recalling significant dates in his life, which could reflect a facility with numbers or may be just his way of focusing on what’s important. Whatever the reason, there’s no question that this bricklayer, veteran, father of eight, successful contractor, and now, in retirement, part-time Minnesota State Senate employee, is very important to those around him.

Local 1 MN/ND retired member Herb Cook stands next to his completed “retirement project” – a fireplace built for his daughter Marie and her husband Keith in the fall of 2000.

When asked how he came into the trade, Cook had no trouble recalling the exact date he graduated from high school, May 30, 1947, which he said sticks in his mind because the next Monday morning, his father, a BAC signatory contractor, put him to work on a job. In September 1950 he received his Union card. Before long, however, hostilities in Korea escalated, and Cook spent the next two years serving stateside with the U.S. Army. When he returned home in 1953, he joined his father’s company as a partner. “Business was very steady,” he says. “We usually employed between eight and ten men.” The firm’s work was “mostly residential, building fireplaces and brick fronts, as well as smaller commercial properties, such as veterinary clinics.”

Following his father’s example, Cook brought his two sons into the trade – Andrew, a bricklayer and 28-year member of Local 1 MN/ND and Mike, a 27-year member, who serves as Executive Vice President and Field Representative of Local 1. Mike Cook said of his father’s masonry career, “It was hard work, but it was good work, and provided a comfortable living for a family with eight kids.”

When he retired in 1996, even Cook’s large family – wife Dorothy, Mike, Andrew, six daughters and now, 18 grandchildren – failed to occupy all his time. “I was bored for the first year,” he admitted. When he heard about a part-time position with the Minnesota Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Office at the State Capitol in St. Paul, he jumped at the chance. The office is chiefly responsible for maintaining order and decorum in the Senate chamber and at Committee hearings, and coordinates security and transportation with other Capitol offices.

Cook’s eight-year tenure has given him a unique, front-row seat to observe the fascinating ebb and flow of the state’s legislative process. Recently, it was more ‘ebb’ when lawmakers failed to pass a new state budget and had to meet in special session for seven weeks until agreement was reached on July 13th. The impasse even resulted in a partial government shutdown on July 1st, the first in Minnesota’s history. Cook, who is used to having most of the summer off, was as relieved as the senators when the session adjourned.

The one date Brother Cook said he’ll never forget is the day he was married, and he wanted to be sure that Journal readers know that on June 11th of this year, he and Dorothy celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.