Tim Cook Family History

Timothy Donald Cook, better known as Tim Cook, was born on November 1st, 1960 to Don and Geraldine Cook in Mobile, Alabama.  When Tim was eleven the family moved to the small town of Robertsdale lying midway between the two towns of Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida.  They lived there in a brick house on a dead-end street not far from a livestock auction house.

Tim Cook excelled at school.  But the money was tight. When he wrote an award-winning essay at the age of sixteen, he had to do it by hand as his family could not afford a new typewriter.

After getting his degree from Auburn University, Tim spent twelve years working with IBM, eventually becoming their director of North American fulfilment.

In 1997 he was hired by Steve Jobs at Apple, beginning a long friendship and working relationship with him.  When Jobs resigned as the CEO of Apple in 2011, he named Cook as his successor.  A very different type of leader, he has grown the company enormously since that time.  Tim Cook came out as gay in 2014.

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Early Cooks

The starting point for Tim Cook’s forebears in America was Monmouth county in New Jersey.  The first known ancestor was William Cook, a farmer, who was born in the town of Shrewsbury in 1780 and who married Mary Porter around the year 1800.  It may be that his line in America could extend further back to 1645 and to Thomas Cook who came to Rhode Island from England at that time.

We can plot William and Mary’s movements by the birth of their children – a daughter Emilene in Virginia in 1802 and a son Alexander in South Carolina in 1818.  William died two years later in South Carolina and Mary seems to have returned back to New Jersey some time later.  Her son Alexander went south to Alabama where he met and married Susan Henderson around the year 1845.

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Cooks in Alabama

The Cooks made their home in the rural coastal plain of south-central Alabama, first in Butler county and then in neighboring Crenshaw county when it was formed in 1866.  Daniel Dozier, born in 1867, was the youngest son of Alexander and Susan Cook; while Canie Dozier, born in 1902, was Daniel’s son.  Then Don – Tim’s father – married his wife Geraldine from a country town outside of Greenville in Butler county.

Don worked as a foreman for Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding, which was the largest employer in Mobile in the 1950’s. The firm built and repaired ships for the military. Geraldine meanwhile worked at a drugstore in Robertsdale after they moved there in 1971.

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Tim Cook’s Family Tree

• William Cook (1780-1820) m. Mary Porter (1776-1861) in New Jersey
• – Emilene Cook (b. 1802), born in Virginia
• – Alexander Cook (1818-1872), born in South Carolina

• Alexander Cook m. Susan Henderson (1826-1886) from Butler county, Alabama
• – Elizabeth Cook (1845-1889)
• – Martha Cook (1846-1890) m. Thomas Mullins
• – William Cook (b. 1847)
• – John Cook (1860-1937) m. Louannie Rodgers
• – Daniel Cook (1867-1938)

• Daniel Dozier Cook m. Caledonia (Callie) Rodgers (1867-1962) in Crenshaw county in 1889
• – Kennie Cook (1891-1983)
• – Belma Cook (1893-1979)
• – Mary Cook (1897-1977)
• – Canie Cook (1902-1985)
• – Walter Cook (1905-1980) m. Era Mae Nichols

• Canie Dozier Cook m. Ruth Mae Tartt (1909-1985) in Butler county in 1926
• – Donald (Don) Cook (b. 1933)