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Obituary: Lloyd Allen Cook / Headed U.S. Steel legal team, performed in local club bands
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Lloyd Allen Cook, a longtime Highland Park resident, professional trumpet player and retired attorney who headed the international legal team for U.S. Steel in the 1960s and '70s, died Wednesday at his winter home in Tampa, Fla.
Mr. Cook passed away in his sleep a day after enjoying dinner with his son, Christopher of Tampa. He was 90.
A native of Iowa, Mr. Cook left England, where he was living since being stationed there as an attorney with the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II, to join U.S. Steel's legal department in the early 1960s.
Settling in Highland Park with his wife and two young sons, Mr. Cook traveled the world for the steel giant negotiating contracts for raw materials at iron ore mines in such countries as Venezuela, Thailand and Japan, his son said.
After taking an early retirement offer during the steel maker's massive retrenchment, Mr. Cook rejoined the federal government as an attorney for the Department of the Interior in Green Tree.
"He did the opposite of what he did at U.S. Steel," his son said. "He helped file suits against companies and made them restore [areas fouled by] strip mines."
A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, Mr. Cook began his lifelong affinity for the trumpet at age 14, playing the instrument to help support his family after his father died.
Over the years, Mr. Cook played in club bands, including in jazz clubs in the Hill District, and on Pittsburgh riverboats in a dixie band, his son said.
In recent years, Mr. Cook enjoyed stints as a guest trumpet player for a jazz band at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association in Oakland.
"The band members would say, 'If you're bringing Cookie, have him bring his trumpet,' " his son said.
Mr. Cook also was a proud member of the high-IQ society Mensa, keeping up with other members during weekly lunches in Tampa, his son said.
Mr. Cook joined the group years ago after an argument with his wife, the late Gale Bewley Cook, produced an exchange along the lines of, "Oh, you think you're so smart."
The comment spurred him to take the Mensa test, and to the family's surprise he got in. "I think it even surprised him," his son said.
Mr. Cook is survived by two other sons, Timothy of Illinois and Jonathan of Georgia, and 10 grandchildren.
Friends will be received from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at John A. Freyvogel Sons Inc., 4900 Centre Ave., Shadyside.
Funeral services are set for 10 a.m. Tuesday at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave., Shadyside. Burial will be in Allegheny Cemetery, Lawrenceville.
First Published March 10, 2013 12:00 am
