Sidney A. Cook: Difference between revisions
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== International Vice President in Adyar == | == International Vice President in Adyar == | ||
[[File:Cook_leaving_Olcott_2.jpg|220px|right|thumb|Sidney and Etha Cook with Olcott staff on March 15, 1946]] | [[File:Cook_leaving_Olcott_2.jpg|220px|right|thumb|Sidney and Etha Cook with Olcott staff on March 15, 1946]] | ||
International President [[Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa]] asked Mr. Cook to join his administration (1946-1953) as Vice President. On March 15, 1946, Mr. Cook and his wife Etha left for India. | International President [[Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa]] asked Mr. Cook to join his administration (1946-1953) as Vice President. On March 15, 1946, Mr. Cook and his wife Etha left for India. On [[August 15]], 1947 at 8 a.m., he chaired a celebration of the first day of India's independence, held in the Headquarters hall. Speakers also included C. S. Trilokekar, [[Rukmini Devi Arundale|Srimathi Rukmini Devi Arundale]], and [[G. Srinivasa Murti|Dr. G. Srinivasa Murti]]. The hall was specially decorated with flags of all nations, and August 15-16 were observed as national holidays. | ||
One of projects that Mr. Cook coordinated in Adyar was the publication of the [[Collected Writings (book)|''Collected Writings'']] of [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]]. The editor, [[Boris de Zirkoff]], wrote to a friend from Los Angeles, | One of projects that Mr. Cook coordinated in Adyar was the publication of the [[Collected Writings (book)|''Collected Writings'']] of [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]]. The editor, [[Boris de Zirkoff]], wrote to a friend from Los Angeles, | ||
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== Later years == | == Later years == | ||
According to Joy Mills, | According to Joy Mills, | ||
Revision as of 16:44, 23 March 2015
Sidney A. Cook was an officer in the Diamond T Motor Truck Company in Chicago. He served as President of the Theosophical Society in America during the years 1931–1945, and international Vice President of the Theosophical Society headquartered in Adyar, India, from 1946 to 1959.
Early life
Business career
Theosophical work
Following the death of his young son Aubrey in 19__, Mr. Cook began "the search which led him to Theosophy and his long years of service to the Society."[1]
President of American Section
He made a donation to create the Aubrey Garden in memory of his son.
International Vice President in Adyar
International President Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa asked Mr. Cook to join his administration (1946-1953) as Vice President. On March 15, 1946, Mr. Cook and his wife Etha left for India. On August 15, 1947 at 8 a.m., he chaired a celebration of the first day of India's independence, held in the Headquarters hall. Speakers also included C. S. Trilokekar, Srimathi Rukmini Devi Arundale, and Dr. G. Srinivasa Murti. The hall was specially decorated with flags of all nations, and August 15-16 were observed as national holidays.
One of projects that Mr. Cook coordinated in Adyar was the publication of the Collected Writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The editor, Boris de Zirkoff, wrote to a friend from Los Angeles,
The collaboration with Adyar is splendid just now; nothing more to be desired. Sidney A. Cook is at it with hammer and tong, and is doing fine.[2]
When Mr. Jinarājadāsa, suffering from ill health, retired from the presidency in 1953, Nilakanta Sri Ram was elected to succeed him. Mr. Cook continued in his position as Vice President.
Later years
According to Joy Mills,
In 1959 he took up residence once again in Chicago, becoming chairman of the Theosophical Investment Trust, the establishment of which, although an achievement of Perkins' administration, had long been a cherished dream of Cook's. His beloved Etha had died in India in May, 1949; soon thereafter he was married to Dr. Jocelyn Todd-Naylor from England, who had nursed Etha during her final illness. Failing health took Cook with his wife to her home in England, where he spent his final years quietly, passing away on August 4, 1965.[3]
Writing
Like other Presidents of the American Section, Mr. Cook served as editor of section periodicals, The Theosophical Messenger and The American Theosophist. He also wrote many articles for those and other Theosophical journals. The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists 287 articles by or about Sidney A Cook and another 59 under the initials SAC.
Notes
- ↑ Joy Mills, 100 Years of Theosophy: A History of the Theosophical society in America (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1987), 91.
- ↑ Boris de Zirkoff letter to Judith Tyberg. November 23, 1948. Boris de Zirkoff Papers. Records Series 22. Theosophical Society in America Archives.
- ↑ Joy Mills, 100 Years of Theosophy: A History of the Theosophical society in America (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1987), 123.