1975-1977 Christopher Cooke

1975-1977 Christopher R. Cooke

Bethel

Chris Cooke was born in Springfield, Ohio in 1943. He came to Alaska in the early 1970s after earning his B.A from Yale University in 1965 and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1968. Cooke met his wife, Margaret Nick Cooke, in Alaska and they were wed in July of 1970. The couple has two daughters: Karen and Anastasia.

After moving to Alaska, Cooke worked for Alaska Legal Services and then went into private practice with the firm of Rice, Hoppner and Hedland in Bethel in 1973 becoming Bethel’s first private attorney. He served on the Board of Regents for University of Alaska from 1975-1977. He was one of two regents appointed to an expanded board in 1975 in an attempt to bring better representation of rural communities to the board.

Cooke cut his term as a regent short when he resigned from the board in 1977 due to his appointment as a superior court judge. Cooke served as a superior court judge in Bethel from 1976-1986. As a private attorney, Chris represented many Alaskans in a lawsuit in the mid-2000's against Jesuit priests who sexually abused children under their care in rural Alaska.

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