Abner Ray Cook, 1909-1993

Captain Abner Ray Cook was born on July 19, 1909, at Marshall, Texas, where his grandfather had built the first desegregated church in 1842. His family moved to Whittier, Cal., where Ray later graduated from Whittier College in 1932. Graduating from Duke University School of Religion (Divinity School) in 1935 where he had lived with a group including a law student, Richard M. Nixon, the writer, and 15 other divinity students, he was assigned to Trinity Church, Los Angeles of the California-Pacific conference, M.E. Church, South, and later the Phoenix-Capitol and the Williams-Maxwell churches of the Desert Southwest conference, followed by Eastmont Church of the California-Pacific conference of the Methodist Church.

Having been ordained elder in 1939, he was granted a commission as Lt. j.g. in the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps in 1940, from which he retired in 1969. Ray was transferred to the Virginia conference in 1958 while serving in Norfolk, Va. His Navy service included Protestant chaplain on the heavy cruiser Louisville which was on an Orient cruise on Dec. 7, 1941. His wife, Rose, and young son had just arrived in Pearl Harbor after he left but were evacuated back to Whittier, Cal., in February 1942. Captain Cook was senior chaplain at Treasure Island Base, Cal.; Naval Air Station, Alemeda, Cal.; staff chaplain Naval Air Atlantic Command, Norfolk, Va.; Memphis Naval Base, Memphis, Tenn.; U.S. Naval Hospital, San Diego, Cal.

His honors include Commendation for Distinguished Service Kanawaga Perfecture, Yokohoma, Japan; Korean Presidential Unit and Naval Unit Citation while on the carrier Valley Forge; two letters of commendation as staff chaplain at Commander Naval Air Station, Memphis; service medal for serving in the Vietnam War where his son, Bruce, was a Naval commander. Ray was honored by giving the commissioning prayer for the carrier Forrestal while serving in Norfolk.

The writer best remembers Captain Cook for the deeply serious and devoted commitment in the writing of his graduating thesis on the "Oxford Group Movement," leading him to becoming a deeply spiritually-minded person. His visit to my father's parsonage in Covington, Va., for the Christmas season proved to be a blessing to each member of our family, and our love for him has continued through the years. His life and ministry has been summed up by his Duke friend and fellow chaplain Martell Twitchell as follows: "Abner Ray Cook was a distinguished Naval chaplain, a superior preacher, a warm-hearted pastor, and an excellent administrator."

His first wife, Rose, died in 1968, having borne two sons and a daughter. Later he married Mrs. Marguerite A. Johnson who shared his life until his death in a Coronado, Cal., hospital near his home on January 30, 1993. He had previously informed the writer of his earnest wish to revisit Virginia in the spring, but added, "The last six months have been the worst of my life, but the sentence is about complete."

He was buried alongside Rose in Cypress Lawn Cemetery, San Francisco, with full military honors. He is survived by his wife, Marguerite, of Coronado, Cal., sons Bruce of Intervale, N.H., and Robert of Tucson, Ariz., and daughter Karen of Mt. Vernon, Ind., and three stepchildren Mark, Scott, and Ericka Johnson.

"Eternal Father, strong to save,

Whose arm hath bound the restless wave...
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee

Glad hymns of praise from land and sea!"

 

-Carl Wrenn Haley