By Brian Trompeter
Like the true shutterbug he was, late Vienna photographer Thomas Ross “T.R.” Cook frequently mounted a chair to get just the right angle for the shot he wanted.
This alarmed some of his friends in his later years. Kathy Georgen, co-founder and now treasurer of the Vienna Business Association, once posted a barricade of buddies around Cook’s chair to keep him from falling as he photographed a breakdance competition at a wedding reception.
“T.R. was always a huge supporter of small businesses, community, patriotism – the whole gamut, all the way through,” Georgen said at a Feb. 10 celebration of Cook’s life in the Vienna Community Center’s auditorium.
Cook touched and documented many lives during his 93 years, and was a bedrock presence in the town, longtime friends said. He served as an auxiliary Vienna police officer, flew the U.S. flag daily at his house and preferred to give hugs instead of handshakes, Georgen said.
The event was hosted by the Optimist Clubs of Greater Vienna and Great Falls and drew about 50 people. Thomas Bauer, president of the Vienna Optimist group, read Biblical passages from Ephesians and Matthew.
“Those verses particularly epitomize T.R. to me,” Bauer said. “Salt of the earth and light of the world – not a bad description of the T.R. Cook that I knew.”
The audience also sang the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” and watched video performances of “How Great Thou Art” by Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill and “When I Get to Where I’m Going,” sung by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton.
Cook, who died Dec. 11 last year at age 93, was born in Tennessee and as a young man was a U.S. Army paratrooper.
“T.R. Cook was a Tennessee gentleman who served his country with honor and distinction,” said Robert Dix, a former Vienna Town Council member and Hunter Mill District supervisor.
Cook was a difference-maker, part of the community’s fabric and integral to many town activities, Dix said. He worked with Dix to begin all-night graduation parties where high-school seniors could celebrate at the Vienna Community Center after receiving their diplomas and not risk harm on local roadways.
“A lot of lives were saved as a result of that program, I’m convinced,” Dix said.
Cook since 1966 had operated Cook’s Photo Art Studio out of his residence in a rambling Victorian home at 135 Park St., N.E.
A fire badly damaged the home last April, sending Cook to the hospital. One of is grandsons, Nash Cook, plans to restore the house, which now has its windows boarded up.
Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert recalled posing in Cook’s upstairs studio for wedding photos and for portraits when she joined the Vienna Town Council. Cook spent decades documenting life in the town, she said.
“Did he know all those photos would provide a history of Vienna?” she asked.
Cook often took photos for free, including for business owner Don Perry, who had detailed his car. Cook was dismayed by Perry’s existing promotional photos, and proceeded to take better ones at no charge.
The photographer always had jokes ready and while the punch lines didn’t always stick the landing, “it was the spirit and delivery that really affected you,” Perry said.
Cook’s sense of humor manifested itself in other ways. While passersby began purloining pretty flowers on his property, he posted a “Beware of Snakes” sign, recalled local resident Gary Moonan.
Cook joined the Optimist Club of Greater Vienna in 1974, served as its president for one year and helped create the group’s Youth Awards of Excellence, which in 2015 were renamed after him.
He later helped found the Optimist Club of Great Falls and was its president from 2004 through 2016.
“He always wanted us to go down the right path,” said Linda Thompson, a member of the Great Falls club. “He was always there with a smile and a joke.”
Dan Mulville moved to a home across the street from Cook’s 50 years ago, and remembered how Cook had urged him to join the Vienna Optimist club.
“He was a good friend, a good neighbor and always an Optimist,” Mulville said.
Cook was the soul and spirit of Vienna and a positive force in community life, said Dwight Avis, former president of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce.
“As you talked with him, you felt his faith in you,” Avis said. “He was open to exploring the adventure of life, while not losing the sanctity of the moment.”
