University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Walter P. Cooke, 1869-1931

Walter P. Cooke, right, and Samuel P. Capen lead the procession to Capen's inauguration on Oct. 28, 1922. Photo: UB ARCHIVES

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Published: March 31, 2011

The death of Walter P. Cooke was a great loss to the city of Buffalo and to UB. The university had lost its most effective supporter: It was Cooke who, in 1920, had literally recreated the university and assumed the responsibility for its destiny.

Walter Platt Cooke, a native of Buffalo and graduate of the Cornell law school, was a partner in the firm of Kenefick, Cooke, Mitchell, Bass & Letchworth, chairman of the board of the Marine Trust Company, and a director of many of Buffalo’s leading corporations. His interest and generosity extended to cultural and social welfare agencies as well. He also played a leading role in the reconstruction of post-war Europe.

It was Cooke’s service to UB that proved to be the most lasting.

In 1920, UB was a loosely organized group of professional schools, with only the bare beginnings of an arts and sciences college. The only endowment was the Knox fund for the arts and sciences; the professional schools were without funds. Buildings and equipment were insufficient. Most of the teaching staff were part-time volunteers. With slightly more than 1,000 students, UB had never had a full-time chancellor.

While there was little that was impressive about the visible university, UB could claim 74 years of service to the community. There also was the dream of a “greater university” and, perhaps more than anyone else, Walter P. Cooke wanted to see that dream realized.

In the summer of 1920, Cooke took steps to make the dream of a “greater university” a reality. After provisional letters of resignation had been received from council members and Chancellor Charles P. Norton, Cooke led a reorganization of the University Council that resulted in his being elected council chair. Once in charge, he created the Committee on General Administration, the group empowered to oversee the activities of the university. Cooke was to chair that group, too.

Cooke had directed Buffalo’s successful Liberty Loan campaign in support of the Allied cause in World War I, and it was the organization of volunteers from that campaign that he summoned to undertake UB’s first capital campaign in the fall of 1920.

Between 1920 and 1922, Cooke served as acting chancellor. With the appointment of George D. Crofts as treasurer in 1921 and Samuel P. Capen as chancellor in 1922, UB had it first two full-time administrators.

In the mid-1920s, Cooke served as chair of the Arbitral Tribunal of Interpretation, formed to settle disputes between Germany and the Reparations Commission, and for a year was a citizen member of the commission. He continued to chair the University Council while he worked in The Hague and in Paris to help rebuild post-war Europe. In 1929, he directed UB’s second successful capital campaign.

Hayes Hall was the site of the university’s memorial service for Cooke on Dec. 6, 1931. While several of Buffalo’s cultural, civic and business leaders outlined Cooke’s contributions to his native city, it was Capen’s eloquent remarks that described the incomparable role Walter Cooke had played in the development of the university.

“Of all his contributions to the welfare of this city, none is likely to be more lasting than his contribution to the upbuilding of the university,” said Capen. “Out of a city which was hardly conscious that it had a university in its midst, 24,000 persons were induced to subscribe to the university project. More than $5 million was raised in 10 days for an institution that, in the course of 74 years, had been able to accumulate only about a million dollars worth of assets.”

Capen noted that in 1920, “there was an organization to be set up, where none before had existed” and that policies had to be established. “His wise judgments, his liberal views and his foresight laid foundations of another kind of university that was to evolve. For after all, a university is principally invisible and immaterial. It is an affair of the mind and the spirit. Unless it stands for progressive enlightenment through insight rather than for coercion, for tolerance, for resolute and impartial examination of the mysteries of nature and activities of man, it is not a university; it is a masquerade. What the university of today owes to Mr. Cooke’s consistent recognition of these intangibles can hardly be overestimated.”

For more about Cooke and his impact on UB, consult the Walter P. Cooke papers, Walter P. Cooke scrapbooks, university fund-raising records, University of Buffalo Endowment Fund scrapbook and the University of Buffalo Council minute books, all in the University Archives. The remarks made during his memorial service are in “Walter P. Cooke, 1869-1931” (privately printed, 1932).

—John Edens, University Archives