The Bill Cook Story

This is the riveting story and first-ever biography of entrepreneur Bill Cook of the global multibillion-dollar Cook Group. A vivid portrait of a modern, multidimensional Horatio Alger, this informative and inspiring book celebrates an exceptional self-made individual.

A look into the final years of the billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist and his work in historic preservation in Indiana. Working from the spare bedroom of his Bloomington, Indiana, apartment in 1963 with a $1,500 investment, Bill Cook began to construct the wire guides, needles, and catheters that would become the foundation of the global multi-billion-dollar Cook Group. This story has been eloquently told in Bob Hammel’s The Bill Cook Story: Ready, Fire, Aim. The sequel to this story explores Cook’s final years, when the restoration work he championed, epitomized by the spectacular West Baden Hotel, became a driving force in his life and a source of great satisfaction and pleasure. Hammel takes us behind the scenes on the important restorations of Beck’s Mill, a Methodist Church that is now Indiana Landmarks Center, and the remarkable commitment of Cook toward reviving his hometown, Canton, Illinois. At the heart of the book are the events of Bill Cook’s final days and his death in April, 2011, but this solemn chronicle soon gives way to fond recollections of Cook’s extraordinary life and legacy, and to the continuing saga of the company he founded as it looks toward a bright future. “In The Bill Cook Story II: The Re-Visionary, Bob Hammel engagingly highlights several of Cook’s major restoration efforts, and also chronicles how he remained dedicated to such work even as his health failed.” —Indiana Magazine of History

Robert ‘Mac’ MacIver had always been interested in aviation, and fate takes its course when he looks up to see a military jet flying overhead just after finishing his last exam at university in the mid-1970s. He soon finds himself at a Canadian Armed Forces recruiting centre, where he applies to become a military pilot. Beginning with basic officer training (boot camp), through many phases of flying training, and then operational assignments, Mac experiences all that the military has to offer; the best – camaraderie, mentorship, and the opportunity to fly and learn new skills – and the worst – a ‘Hierarchy of Loyalty’ designed to protect those at the top, layers of bureaucracy, and equipment that puts soldiers’ lives at risk. During his two decades of service, Mac meets the ‘Believers’, those who think the military has a real combat capability, and the ‘Deceivers’, those who know better but go along for career purposes. Despite these players, he has an interesting career that includes Tactical and Search and Rescue helicopter, and VIP fixed-wing flying. That is, until he encounters the ‘Star Chamber’ workings of the military’s investigative process and then must also fight the misdiagnosis of a deadly disease. These dealings expose the need for effective representation of military members in conflict with unchecked authority. Mac can only rely on his own allies: perseverance and self-reliance. Written by a military pilot, this semi-autobiographical story is a must read for anyone who is interested in aviation, has experience with the Canadian military, or is interested in a military career.

Always in charge, whether in the boardroom, in the cockpit, or at the wheel of the bus driving Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps to its next competition, Bill Cook was a man on the go. Bill Cook is best known as the visionary founder and leader of the medical devices company Cook Group. But he was also a devoted husband and father, an avid pilot, a major force in historic preservation, and even produced a Tony award-winning Broadway musical. Bill Cook: A Heck of a Ride, produced by Ron Prickel, presents a compelling portrait of the man behind the legend.

“You can almost taste the food in Bill Buford’s Dirt, an engrossing, beautifully written memoir about his life as a cook in France.” —The Wall Street Journal What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and pack up and (with a wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow) move to Lyon, the so-called gastronomic capital of France. But what was meant to be six months in a new and very foreign city turns into a wild five-year digression from normal life, as Buford apprentices at Lyon’s best boulangerie, studies at a legendary culinary school, and cooks at a storied Michelin-starred restaurant, where he discovers the exacting (and incomprehensibly punishing) rigueur of the professional kitchen. With his signature humor, sense of adventure, and masterful ability to bring an exotic and unknown world to life, Buford has written the definitive insider story of a city and its great culinary culture.

Award-winning food writer Bee Wilson's secret history of kitchens, showing how new technologies - from the fork to the microwave and beyond - have fundamentally shaped how and what we eat. Since prehistory, humans have braved sharp knives, fire, and grindstones to transform raw ingredients into something delicious -- or at least edible. But these tools have also transformed how we consume, and how we think about, our food. In Consider the Fork, award-winning food writer Bee Wilson takes readers on a wonderful and witty tour of the evolution of cooking around the world, revealing the hidden history of objects we often take for granted. Technology in the kitchen does not just mean the Pacojets and sous-vide machines of the modern kitchen, but also the humbler tools of everyday cooking and eating: a wooden spoon and a skillet, chopsticks and forks. Blending history, science, and personal anecdotes, Wilson reveals how our culinary tools and tricks came to be and how their influence has shaped food culture today. The story of how we have tamed fire and ice and wielded whisks, spoons, and graters, all for the sake of putting food in our mouths, Consider the Fork is truly a book to savor.

The story of one of the greatest unsolved problems in mathematics What is the shortest possible route for a traveling salesman seeking to visit each city on a list exactly once and return to his city of origin? It sounds simple enough, yet the traveling salesman problem is one of the most intensely studied puzzles in applied mathematics—and it has defied solution to this day. In this book, William Cook takes readers on a mathematical excursion, picking up the salesman's trail in the 1800s when Irish mathematician W. R. Hamilton first defined the problem, and venturing to the furthest limits of today’s state-of-the-art attempts to solve it. He also explores its many important applications, from genome sequencing and designing computer processors to arranging music and hunting for planets. In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman travels to the very threshold of our understanding about the nature of complexity, and challenges you yourself to discover the solution to this captivating mathematical problem.

Once upon a time in the late nineteenth century, there was an outlaw that captured the imagination of the American public like no other. He can be compared to John Dillinger or Pretty Boy Floyd of the 1930s. Like both of these men, he garnered national press for his exploits; the well-known New York Times had a running commentary on his actions and deeds. This outlaw's name was Crawford Goldsby, better known as Cherokee Bill.Cherokee Bill was every bit as colorful and outrageous as any criminal of the western frontier, perhaps even more so. There were a few things about him that made him truly unique for a famous desperado of the purple sage. First and foremost, he was an African American living in the Indian Territory. He was also Native American, Bill was a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, as a freedman, from his mother's lineage.Compare Cherokee Bill to Billy the Kid, (Billy Antrim), of New Mexico Territory fame. Although both outlaws received national media attention for their crimes while they were living, Billy the Kid was remembered and immortalized in books and films in the twentieth century; this did not occur for Cherokee Bill. Art Burton's newest book will help change that.

Discover Your Oasis: Escape Compassion Fatigue Do you work in the helping professions, education, emergency services, healthcare, ministry, social services, or government? Do you care for an aging loved one or a special needs child? If your career or life includes caring for the needs of others, you are at risk of developing compassion fatigue and even burnout. The stress of constantly giving and serving can parch your energy and vitality. Are you so busy taking care of others that you forget to take care of yourself? Discover Your Oasis will guide you with both big ideas and practical steps to refresh yourself professionally and personally. Become a sustainable caregiver who can go the distance. Learn how to reduce your stress and increase your satisfaction. Psychiatrist Dr. William S. Cook, Jr. and executive coach Grant D. Fairley take you through short, readable chapters on how to escape compassion fatigue, avoid burnout, and find your inner oasis.