Rodney Mims Cook Jr.

Cook's father, Rodney Mims Cook Sr., was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement whose eulogy in the Georgia House Chamber was delivered by The Honorable Joe Wilkinson.[12] His mother, Bettijo, moved and then restored the antebellum historic plantation Tullie Smith House to the grounds of the Atlanta History Center. As a result of such influence, at the age of 14 Cook initiated a campaign to successfully save the 5000+ seat Fox Theatre,[13] the nation's second largest, and was subsequently awarded the National Trust for Historic Preservation Prize by trust President James Biddle.[14] Cook served as a White House intern in 1974 under President Richard Nixon.[15]

A graduate of The Lovett School, Cook received a BA degree from Washington and Lee University.[16]

In 1982, Cook established Rodney Mims Cook Interests, a design/development company. In 1987, he founded PolitesCook Architects, which designed the Newington-Cropsey Foundation Gallery of Art in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.[17] His Gallery of Art design brought him to the attention of the Prince of Wales and his foundation for architecture and Cook subsequently organized the design and construction of the Prince's Olympic Games monument in Atlanta with Anton Glikin.[18]

He is on the boards of directors of the Hearst Castle Preservation Foundation, California;[19] the National Monuments Foundation, Atlanta; Historic Mims Park, Atlanta;[20] and the American University of Integrative Sciences, Sint Maarten.[21] He is an emeritus board member of The Fox Theatre Inc., The Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, The New York Philomusica, The Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, and is a past president of both the Animal Health Trust U.S., Newmarket, England and WPBA/WABE, Public Broadcasting Atlanta.[22] Cook's work has been published in Architectural Digest, Time Magazine, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times of London, Pravda, Izvestia, The New Yorker, The Weekly Standard, Forbes, and USA Today.[23]

Cook was involved in the creation of the Plum Orchard Center for the Arts to be located on Cumberland Island, Georgia with John F. Kennedy Jr.[24] The premature death of JFK Jr., a fellow board member, ended this project. Cook spoke at JFK, Jr.'s funeral in July 1999.[25]

In May 2008, Cook opened the Millennium Gate Museum, the largest classical monument erected in the U.S. since the Jefferson Memorial.[26]

In November 2008, Rodney Cook was part of a delegation who, along with the Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed, travelled to the UK to visit HRH Prince Charles. They discussed the rebuilding of Historic Mims Park, now called Rodney Cook Sr. Park, in Atlanta and the possibility of the Prince of Wales' involvement given his background in urban design.[27]

Rodney Cook testified before Congress on behalf of the National Monuments Foundation in 2012 concerning the proposed plans for a new Eisenhower Memorial in Washington D.C.[28]

In November 2015, he was a keynote speaker at the "Master Plan for 21st Century Havana" Conference,[29] which for the first time in Cuban history, Cuban citizens and international scholars and urbanists participated together to develop an independent and comprehensive holistic vision for the entire city.

Rodney Cook, Jr. was one of 3 keynote speakers at the Hermitage Museum in the Catherine the Great Theater of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia for the Museum of the 21st Century and New Media Technologies: Limits of Freedom Conference to discuss the future potential of museum archives with the help of virtual reality.[30]

Cook's organization, The National Monuments Foundation, is currently working on constructing a peace park in Atlanta called Rodney Cook Sr. Park, which is named for his father. The park has a large civil rights focus as it is located in Historic Vine City, the neighborhood that was home to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Senator Julian Bond, Mayor Maynard Jackson, and many other Civil Rights Leaders of the mid-20th century.[31]

Cook is married to Emily Robinson Cook, a commercial photographer, who is responsible for the creation of the largest wildlife sanctuary in the city of Atlanta.[32] They have two daughters and reside in Georgia.

Cook's organization, the National Monuments Foundation, received the 2006 Palladio Award for best new public space in the United States for the Peace and Justice Gate and Plaza.[33] He also received The Atlanta City Council Award for The Prince of Wales's Centennial Olympics Monument.[34] Cook and his organization Youth for the Fox were awarded the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Prize in 1974 for saving the Fox Theater in Atlanta.[14] Cook's design of the Newington-Cropsey Museum resulted in an Arthur Ross Award for Patronage in 1997 to Barbara Newington.[35] Cook and Michael Franck have received a National Civic Art Society board of directors commendation for their proposed design for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C.[36] The City of Atlanta honored Cook's family and their service to the city and the State of Georgia in December 2011.[37]