Cook Thanks Supporters

I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all my neighbors who wrote me in on the ballot for Mayor of East Ridge in the Municipal Election.

I want to especially thank the folks who helped me put up campaign signs (Earl Wilson, Rick Robertson and Chuck Janow), and who worked the polls for me on Election Day. I had no idea how ridiculously unwieldy a 10 by 10-foot canopy tent can be in a slight breeze.

I know I’m going to leave some people out – and those omitted, please feel free to berate me as mercilessly as Betty Ann did during the runup to election day – but here’s a shout out to some of the foot soldiers in the “Write-in Dick Cook for Mayor” campaign: Tim and Wanda Kohlmann, Chuck and Cita Halloran, Ed Harding, Allyson Sullivan, Nancy Mount, Hamilton and Candy Fry, Judy Stahl, Kathy Spencer, Cindy Mathis, and Nadine Mitchell.

I want to express my gratitude to Shelley Mitchell and George Mattar who helped me refine and polish my ideas and thoughts on what would move East Ridge forward and make it a better place for all its 21,000 residents.

I would be remiss not to acknowledge the contributions of one Kenny Ludlow. Over the last two years, he seized every chance he got in urging me to run for mayor. My candidacy was brought on by exigent circumstances, Kenny. Nevertheless, you got your wish, old friend.

I reserve the biggest THANK YOU to my bride, Catherine the Great. She cares not for politics but supported me at every turn. Her instincts and intelligence elevated the campaign and kept this recalcitrant candidate on an even keel and on course.

I want to send my best wishes to Brian Williams as he embarks on his second term as Mayor of East Ridge.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.