Cook, Melvin A. (Melvin Alonzo)

Melvin Alonzo Cook is a physical chemist with experimental, theoretical, and industrial contributions. The diversity of his career is represented from its beginning as an explosives research chemist at Du Pont to Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Utah. He founded a major corporation, IRECO Chemicals, based on his development of a new field of industrial explosives known as slurry. Throughout his life he also contributed numerous writings in science and religion.

His living circumstances have been similarly diverse from rural roots to a life of numerous challenges and world travel. He was born in 1911 to Alonzo Laker and Maude Osmond Cook at Swan Creek, Utah, near Bear Lake, and was the third child in a family of ten children. The family soon moved from Bear Lake to Bothwell, Utah where they acquired a dry farm. They were isolated some distance from neighbors; many hours were spent at a large round table telling stories, discussing histories, and teaching religion. Music was also part of family life and the children were provided with musical instruments. Melvin learned to play the clarinet which provided employment and recreation during his high school and college years.

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