Peter Stryker Cooke (born March 7, 1949) is an American businessman, politician and retired Army Reservist. In 2012, he was the Democratic nominee for

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Early life

Cooke was born in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Cooke's father was a pilot for

Pan American Airlines Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

and his family traveled frequently. Cooke graduated from

Frankfurt American High School Frankfurt American High School (FAHS) was a DoDDS, Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) system school located on what was once known as I.G. Farben Building, the Abrams Complex in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany. One of DoDDS or ...

in 1967. Cooke moved to Utah from Germany to attend the

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

(USU) forestry program. Instead, however, Cooke earned a bachelor's degree in 1971 and a master's degree in 1973 from USU in political science. During his time at USU, Cooke was a member of the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Reserve Officer Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

(ROTC).

Career

After graduating from USU, Cooke served in the United States Army Reserves. In 2009 he was awarded the Army Community of Excellence Award. After 39 years in the military, he retired with the rank of

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

. He served as commander of the 96th (reserve) Regional Readiness Command before his retirement. Cooke ran for a congressional bid in 1978, but was not elected. Under Governor Scott M. Matheson, Cooke served as the director of economic development for Utah. In 2012 Cooke declared his candidacy for

Governor of Utah A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. Cooke was called as Mission President for the Washington DC North Mission for three years starting in June 2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Peter 1949 births Latter Day Saints from Florida Living people United States Army reservists Utah Democrats Utah State University alumni Latter Day Saints from Utah Candidates in the 2012 United States elections