Ransom M. Cook
{{Short description|American banker}}
{{about|the American banker|the inventor| Ransom Cook}}
{{infobox officeholder
| office = President of Wells Fargo Bank
| term_start = 1960
| term_end = 1964
| predecessor = Isaias W. Hellman III
| successor = H. Stephen Chase
| birth_name = Ransom McCurdy Cook
| birth_date = {{birth date|1899|09|23}}
| birth_place = Portland, Oregon
| death_date = {{death date and age|1986|02|14|1899|09|23}}
| death_place = Penngrove, California
| education = Jefferson High School
| alma_mater = Oregon State College
| parents = Edith Parker Cook
Frank Ransom Cook
| spouse = {{marriage|Margaret Scheld
|1945|1961|reason=her death}}
| children = Ransom S. Cook
| relations = Donald Cook (brother)
}}
Ransom McCurdy Cook (September 23, 1899 – February 14, 1986) was an American banker who served as president of Wells Fargo Bank from 1960 to 1964.
Early life
Cook was born on September 23, 1899, in Portland, Oregon, where he was raised. He was a son of Edith (née Parker) Cook (1863–1940) and Frank Ransom Cook (1867–1951),{{cite web |title=Ransom McCurdy Cook (1899-1986) |url=http://www.familyhistoryphotostore.com/new-products-3/ransom-mccurdy-cook |website=Family History Photo Store |access-date=4 March 2021}} who was originally from Sandusky, Ohio, and later relocated to Hilo, Hawaii. His elder brother was Mortimer Parker Cook and his younger brother was Donald Cook, a prominent stage and film actor,{{cite news |title=Claudia Proves To Be Amusing Play With Sparkling Dialogue |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72641003/claudia-proves-to-be-amusing-play-with/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The Sacramento Bee |date=17 August 1943 |pages=2}} who was married to Princess Gioia Tasca di Cuto of Palermo from 1937 until his death in 1961.{{cite news |title=DONALD COOK, 60, STAGE ACTOR, DIES; Star of Light Comedies Had Appeared on Screen and TV |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/10/02/archives/donald-cook-60-stage-actor-dies-star-of-light-comedies-had-appeared.html |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=2 October 1961}}{{cite news |title=Donald Cook, Stage Roue, Dies of Heart Attack |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72705177/donald-cook-stage-roue-dies-of-heart/ |access-date=5 March 2021 |work=The Sacramento Bee |date=2 October 1961 |pages=8}}
After graduating in 1917 from Jefferson High School in Portland, he attended Oregon State College in Corvallis, Oregon, where he was a Sigma Nu affiliate.
Career
In 1921, he joined the Mercantile Trust Company, becoming a vice president in 1926. The Mercantile Trust Company merged with the American Bank to form the American Trust Company of San Francisco.{{cite news |title=American Trust Has Facilities Of Trusteeship |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72638211/american-trust-has-facilities-of/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=Santa Rosa Republican |date=21 January 1932 |pages=6}} In 1934, Ransom, who was managing the Santa Rosa branch, became manager of the newly opened Sacramento branch of the firm.{{cite news |title=AMERICAN TRUST HEADS ARE PICKED Ransom M. Cook Will Manage Branch; James Higgins Is Cashier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72637706/american-trust-heads-are-pickedransom/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The Sacramento Bee |date=6 July 1934 |pages=13}}
In 1951, Cook became senior vice president of the American Trust followed by president of the firm in 1959, succeeding Harris C. Kirk who became chairman while remaining its chief executive officer.{{cite news |title=Officer Is Elevated By American Trust Co. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/05/16/archives/officer-is-elevated-by-american-trust-co.html |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=16 May 1959}} The following year, after the American Trust Company merged with Wells Fargo Bank to form Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company, Cook was chosen to become president of the combined organization.{{cite news |title=Wells Fargo and American Trust Banks Merge |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72705345/wells-fargo-and-american-trust-banks/ |access-date=5 March 2021 |work=The Sacramento Bee |date=26 March 1960 |pages=18}} Wells Fargo had been led by Isaias W. Hellman III (a grandson of banker Isaias W. Hellman, a founding father of the University of Southern California) since 1943 (when it was still known as Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company). Two years after Cook assumed the presidency, the bank went back to being known as the Wells Fargo Bank.{{cite news |title=West Coast Bank Plans $100 Million Financing |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/10/archives/west-coast-bank-plans-100-million-financing.html |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=10 July 1964}}{{cite news |title=WELLS FARGO CUTS SIZE OF STOCK LOAN |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/31/archives/wells-fargo-cuts-size-of-stock-loan.html |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=31 July 1964}} In 1964, Cook succeeded Hellman as chairman of the board while retaining the post of chief executive officer and was succeeded as president by H. Stephen Chase.{{cite news |title=Wells Fargo Bank Fills Post |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/09/archives/wells-fargo-bank-fills-post.html |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=9 October 1964}} In November 1966, Chase succeeded sixty-seven year-old Cook as chairman of the board, who was named chairman of the executive committee and continued to serve as president of the Wells Fargo Bank International Corporation.{{cite news |title=Wells Fargo Bank Fills Top Post |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/11/11/archives/wells-fargo-bank-fills-top-post.html |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=11 November 1966}} Cook retired as chairman of the executive committee of Wells Fargo on December 31, 1967,{{cite magazine |title=Executives: The Dean's New Desk |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,841143,00.html |access-date=4 March 2021 |magazine=Time |date=27 October 1967}} but remained on the board as well as chairman of Wells Fargo Bank International Corporation (where he was succeeded as president by Richard P. Cooley).{{cite news |title=Not Quite Retiring |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72638697/not-quite-retiring/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=14 December 1967 |pages=76}}
Cook also served as president of the California Bankers Association in 1958 and 1959, president of the Association of Reserve City Banks in 1961 and 1962 and a member of the advisory boards of the Export Import Bank and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. He also served as chairman of Western American Bank, Ltd. (an international bank formed in London by Wells Fargo and three other banks) from 1968 to 1970 and a director of Euro Finance in Paris from 1966 to 1970.
In 1956, he became a director of Cutter Laboratories (which was purchased by Bayer pharmaceutical in 1974).{{cite news |title=EXECUTIVE CHANGES |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/09/16/archives/executive-changes.html |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=16 September 1956}} He also served as a director of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Littleton Industries, Farinon Electric Corporation (acquired by Harris Corporation in 1969), and Industrial Indemnity Company.
Personal life
Cook was twice married.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Wiggin Will Wed R. M. Cook |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72640128/mrs-wiggin-will-wed-r-m-cook/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The Sacramento Bee |date=15 October 1945 |pages=13}} His first marriage was to Dorothy Edith Cook (1901–1991). His second marriage was in 1945 to Margaret (née Scheld) Wiggin, the only daughter of a pioneer California family who was educated at Miss Ransom School in Piedmont and in the East.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Cook Dies; Wife of Banker |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72639071/mrs-cook-dies-wife-of-banker/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=30 November 1961 |pages=33}} Margaret, the former wife of Philip A. Wiggin, was the daughter of Adolph P. Scheld and the former Leila Carroll.{{cite news |title=SCHELD |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72639876/scheld/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The Sacramento Bee |date=6 August 1946 |pages=15}}{{cite news |title=ENGAGEMENT OF MISS SCHELD ANNOUNCED |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26982372/1926-reference-to-the-misses-carroll/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=1 February 1926 |pages=12}} Together, they lived at 2519 Broadway in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco in a 1937 home designed by modernist architect Gardner Dailey. Cook was the father of:
- Ransom Stephen Cook (b. 1933), who graduated from Stanford University in 1955, Stanford Law School in 1959, becoming a lawyer based in San Francisco.
He was a member of the Pacific-Union Club and the Bohemian Club and presided over the board of trustees of Presbyterian Hospital and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where he was interested in Asian art.
Cook died on February 14, 1986, at his ranch at Penngrove near Santa Rosa, California.{{cite news |title=Ransom M. Cook |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72638354/ransom-m-cook/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=19 February 1986 |pages=23}} A memorial service was held for him at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.{{cite news |title=Retired bank executive Ransom M. Cook is dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38002658/obituary-for-ransom-m-cook-aged-86/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The Press Democrat |date=4 March 1986 |pages=19}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://photos.com/featured/ransom-cook-slim-aarons.html Photograph of Ransom Cook] (1960) by Slim Aarons
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{{succession box
| title = President of Wells Fargo
| before = Isaias W. Hellman III
| after = H. Stephen Chase
| years = 1960–1964
}}
{{S-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Ransom M.}}
Category:20th-century American businesspeople
Category:American bank presidents