Intelligent. Knowledgeable on many different subjects. Interested in the arts, architecture and the community. Visionary.
Those are just some of the ways people described Sam B. Cook, the long-time head of Central Bank and founder of its holding company, the Central Bancompany, who died Friday.
He was 94 and had lived most of his life in Jefferson City.
"I have always considered Sam to be the No. 1 citizen of this community," Betty Jo DeLong said. "He always was willing to support any worthwhile endeavor," both financially and personally, "whether it be sports or construction."
Jack Curtit, long-time president of Home Savings Bank, said Cook "was a leader in the banking industry in Jefferson City (and) a very cordial competitor (who) gave all the competitors the most respect and courtesy."
Curtit also called Cook a civic leader who had lots of options but "chose to stay in Jeff City and to make Jeff City a better place to live and work."
Harold Westhues, hired by Cook to be Jefferson Bank's first president when it opened in November 1967, said Cook "had a creative mind" and was "one of the few really true, long-range thinkers that I've known."
Bob Robuck, who joined Central Bank in December 1968, said Cook "just was such an intelligent person, so knowledgeable on so many different subjects."
Robuck retired several years ago from being Central Bank's president, only to continue working for the holding company, where Cook had been board chairman since 1981. Robuck described himself as the holding company board's vice-chair.
"He just had lots of interests. It was unbelievable the things that he had read about, studied about and was interested in," Robuck said. "It just amazed me that a person could have the capacity to do all that."
Westhues added: "He was open-minded. He liked discussion and liked for you to bring in ideas or, if he laid out an idea he liked his ideas to be built on."
Cook graduated from Jefferson City High School in 1940 (he'd been the basketball team's center), then attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey for a year before attending the University of Missouri.
However, World War II began, and Cook enlisted in the Army, serving in Europe and ending his military service as a captain when he was discharged in 1946.
He then attended Yale University, graduating in 1948, and worked for the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City before returning to Jefferson City in 1950 and joining his father, Howard Cook, at the then-almost 50-year-old Central Missouri Trust Company.
Sam Cook succeeded his father as the bank's president in 1961.
Westhues said, over the years, Cook wanted to hire division directors who knew as much or more about their part of the operations as Cook.
DeLong said one bank officer told her Cook was "a genius at selecting managers. He really was very, very good at selecting the right people to manage" the company.
Westhues' son, Dan Westhues - now Central Bank's chief marketing officer - grew up watching Cook work with the bank's leaders.
"When he walked into a room, it was his room," Dan Westhues said. "He was such a smart man.
"It was really fun to watch him take this company from what his father handed over to where we are today."
In its news release announcing Cook's death, the company noted Cook's leadership took Central Bancompany "to be one of the largest and most respected bank holding companies in Missouri," now with assets of $12 billion and with affiliates operating in four states (Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Oklahoma).
Robuck said in the business and in other parts of his life, Cook "admired people who took their talents, worked hard to develop them and really committed themselves to being the best they could."
Cook served on the boards of three colleges - William Woods in Fulton, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Missouri System's Curators.
Robuck said Cook "believed so strongly that people could excel and improve themselves with education. He was a strong advocate of advanced degrees and continuous learning."
Cook served on the Missouri Highway Commission and, Robuck said, "just loved trying to make the state better economically with a good road system."
He also loved people, Robuck said - even though some may not have believed that.
"Mr. Cook just gained the respect of anybody who spent any time with them," Robuck explained, "because he treated you with respect."
Cook especially admired people who could write and speak, Robuck said, and "was just fascinated with architecture and designing buildings. We used to tease him about being a frustrated architect."
DeLong also pointed to his being a major Jefferson City booster.
Cook supported creation of the city's Environmental Quality Commission, which DeLong headed for a number of years.
"We thought it would be nice if (Jefferson City) became a 'tree city' and had downtown trees," she recalled, "and Sam went whole-hog about that."
He hired a Chicago company to plan the early 1980s project, DeLong said. "He paid for all the expense of having them planted, and I'm sure he's had a lot to do with the care of them."
Since then, she noted, "We've had a lot of landscape architects that have given us a lot of compliments about our downtown."
Curtit succeeded Cook as head of the Jefferson City Housing Authority board.
"After he was off the board, he would come to ribbon cuttings and ground-breakings," Curtit said, "and he testified at public hearings on Housing Authority issues.
"He was - and his employees still are - always involved in the community," Curtit said, "and just looked generally at everything that makes the city better."
DeLong noted, "He's always supported all the sports teams in Jefferson City (and) made a wonderful contribution to this community."
She pointed to his backing of the Healthplex at Capital Region Medical Center's Southwest Campus.
The hospital said in a statement Friday: "Mr. Cook was a pillar in our community, guided by kindness and a vision for the future.
"His generosity helped expand access to health and wellness through a gift to Capital Region Sam B. Cook Healthplex. We are extremely grateful for the his contributions."
DeLong said Cook "was a very special guy."
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