Resident of Santa Cruz County

George Cook grew up in Glasgow and in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute and began his working life as an apprentice plumber, becoming a sanitary inspector with the Glasgow health department in 1947. In April, 1952 he joined the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency as a sanitary engineer assigned to the US Army Civil Assistance Command assisting with the reconstruction of Pusan (now Busan), South Korea. In 1955, after a brief return to Scotland, he emigrated to Canada where he joined the Province of Ontario’s Department of Planning and Development. He held several positions with the Province and the City of Toronto, retiring in 1988 as Commissioner of Housing and General Manager of Toronto’s non-profit housing corporation, Cityhome. He was a founding member of the Canadian Association of Housing and Renewal Officials (now the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association) and vice-president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

In 1984 George met Mary James at a housing conference they were attending, and they began a long-distance relationship from Toronto to Santa Cruz. They continued to commute through their early years of marriage until George’s retirement. After moving to Santa Cruz, he joined the Museum of Art &History management committee for the conversion of the local jail to the current MAH. He was treasurer in the early days of the Jewel Theatre Company board. He joined the local gym and went three times a week until he was 96, stopped only by the gym’s closure during the Covid pandemic.

Life in Santa Cruz did not mean giving up Canada. He and Mary visited Toronto often to spend time with his children and grandchildren and kept a second home in Vancouver, British Columbia, until 2015 when it became too difficult for George to travel.

George loved opera and classical music. For many years he and Mary attended Opera San Jose productions and performances by the Santa Cruz Symphony, Cabrillo Festival of New Music and the Santa Cruz Chamber Players. He became a theater enthusiast (and critic) when his stepdaughter, Julie, founded Jewel Theatre Company in 2005.

George is survived by his sons from his first marriage to Maureen Carey (1926-1984), George (Jr.) and his wife, Norma Vale, of Kingston, Ontario and Andrew and his wife, Irene Zhang, of Aurora, Ontario; granddaughters Ashleigh Stone of Oakville, Ontario, and Ellyn Hughes of Grantham, England, and their husbands, Ryan and Simon, respectively; and great-grandchildren Charlotte and John Stone and Frederick Hughes.

In Santa Cruz, George is survived by his wife, Mary James, stepdaughters Jacqueline James and Julie James, and step-granddaughters Abigail Keller and Hannah Keller (New York).

George was a charming, funny, kind and practical man. He wanted no service, no memorial whatsoever. His working life was dedicated to improving living conditions through sanitation and housing, especially for those affected by war and poverty. He deemed that memorial enough.