Reginald L. Cook collection (addition)

Reginald "Doc" Cook (1903-1984), the namesake of Cook Commons was one of Middlebury's most celebrated professors of English. Born in Mendon, Massachusetts in 1903, Cook graduated from Middlebury in 1929. He studied at Oxford for two years as a Rhodes Scholar, and returned to Middlebury as a professor of American Literature.

Cook served as a member of the Middlebury College faculty for forty years, and he acted as Department Chair for a number of years. In 1946, Cook became the director of The Bread Loaf School of English, a position he filled until 1964. Cook retired from the College in 1969. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Middlebury in 1960 and by St. Michaels College in 1972. Cook wrote two books on his good friend Robert Frost: The Dimensions of Robert Frost (1958), and Robert Frost, a Living Voice (1974). He also wrote extensively on Thoreau.