Cook, Martin L. (Martin Leslie), 1923-2002

African American aeronautical engineer.

Martin Leslie Cook was born on 1 Apr. 1923, the second child of J. Leslie and Bertha Cook. Throughout his childhood in Purcellville, Va., he was fascinated with mechanics and airplanes. One of the most memorable events of his youth was a plane ride his grandfather, Joe Cook, paid for him and two sisters to take when he was five or six. Martin was valedictorian in the 1940 graduating class of Loudoun County Training School in Leesburg, the only African American secondary school in Loudoun County. After graduation, he worked as a painter and carpenter with his father in Purcellville. In Nov. 1942, Cook enlisted in the army and passed the entrance examination for the U.S. Army Aviation Cadet Program, which allowed him to enroll in Tuskegee Army Flying School, the recently-created military aviation school for African Americans. He graduated in Apr. 1944, received his Army commission, and was assigned to 477th Bombardment Group, 618th Bomb Squadron. However, Cook never saw combat. While en route to France in the spring of 1945, an armistice was signed and his services as a fighter pilot were no longer needed. He later remembered this as the biggest disappointment of his life. Cook resigned from the Army Air Forces at the end of Nov. 1945 to pursue a degree in aeronautical engineering from The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C. While enrolled in school, he worked at the Fluid Mechanics Division of the National Bureau of Standard. After graduating in 1953, Cook was employed for thirty-two years with the U.S. Navy in the Dept. of Defense as an aeronautical engineer. He retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1976, and from the Dept. of Defense in 1983. In retirement, he continued to pursue his passion for mechanics, including working on his automobiles. Cook was an avid reader and, at the time of his death, was conducting research in the National Archives for a book on the careers of Tuskegee graduates. While attending CUA, he boarded at the home of his future wife's sister. On 14 Nov. 1953, he and Evelyn Alice Lucas married. They had four children: Daryl Andrew Cook, Deborah Leslie Cook Moten, Doreen Lynn Cook Hope, and Martin Leslie Cook, Jr. Martin Leslie Cook died on 15 Oct. 2002 and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.