When he was growing up, Dublin graduate Terry Cook’s mother instilled in him the importance of being open to adventure. That value is evident in the life he’s led.
“I don’t know how, having grown up on a peanut farm in the middle of nowhere, I became a garden steward for a 19th century poet off the coast of New England,”Cook said. “But that just goes to show you, you never know where life is going to take you.”
Cook graduated from Dublin High School in 1978 and went on to Tarleton to study business. He stayed there for a year, then transferred to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and finished his degree.
Cook worked at a few different companies after graduating, but “I couldn’t find my spot, and I wound up going back to Tarleton and getting my MBA,” he said.
Before Cook even finished his masters, he was hired in a real estate capacity on a subdivision in Fort Worth. “I worked for a developer, and we developed a little subdivision on the west side of Fort Worth called Mary’s Creek Estates,” he said.
Cook stayed there for two years, then took a job at a large real estate company called PHH. In the six years he worked there, Cook was promoted six times, and traveled all over the country.
“My territory was the mid Atlantic and southeast coast,” he said. “I lived in Dallas, so that got to be a bit too much, and then I just started selling real estate in Dallas for various firms. And spent the next 25 years or so doing that.”
He specialized in residential estates, and finished his career with Sotheby’s Realty in the Park Cities neighborhood of Dallas.
Cook retired around 10 years ago, and he and his husband Steve Yevich moved to New Hampshire, where they owned a summer home. “We’re very fortunate,” Cook said. “We followed a bit of family up here, and then also we had a lot of college friends who live in the area.”
Cook and Yevich have enjoyed living up north in their retirement. “We live in a little village of about 1500 people called Newfields,” he said. “We’re very active in town, between town boards, volunteerism, and being really big on our local garden club.”
Since his retirement, Cook has devoted most of his time to gardening. He’s been an active master gardener in the state of New Hampshire for the past 11 years, and at one point even served as the president of the New Hampshire master gardening Alumni Association.
In the summers, Cook works as the garden steward of the Celia Thaxter Garden, ahistoricgardenonAppledore Island about six miles off the coast of Maine. The garden is sponsored by Shoals Marine Lab, the largest and oldest undergraduate marine teaching facility in the world, and part of Cornell and the Universityof NewHampshire. “Technically I’m on staff with them for the summer,” Cook said. “I go out three or four days a week to the island and recreate this garden that was promoted by this 19th century poet and her artist friends.” The island was home to one of the first artist colonies in the U.S., and Cook enjoys maintaining the garden, which visitors come from all over the country to tour.
Cook is also active in two gardening clubs, the Newfields Garden Club and the Piscataqua Garden Club. “I’m the first guy in over 90 years in that club, which is kind of fun,” he said.
Cook and Yevich met through mutual friends while working in Dallas, and have been together for 37 years and married since 2008. “We’ve had an amazing, amazing life,” Cook said. “We’ve been able to travel all over the world, and it’s just been great.” Throughout his life, Cook has found inspiration in his parents Dale and Cleo Cook. “My dad really only had a seventh grade education, and he really did quite well in life — we didn’t realize it, but he did,” Cook said. “He was land poor, as we all were at the time, but he was a remarkable, kind, generous person. And then my mother was very strong, and she always said, you know, when a door is presented to you, go through it. So never be scared to do that. And always, always, always be adventuresome and find your way in the world.”
Another thing his parents taught him is to be proud of the work that allows you to support yourself and your family. “My parents were [of the] dustbowl generation, so they moved to California in the late 1930s and early 1940s when they couldn’t make a living and pay for the taxes on our property in Texas,” he said. “They worked for various families, and one of the families they worked for was a husband and wife who owned a walnut grove. My mother was shelling walnuts one day with the lady that owned the farm. And if you’re familiar with walnuts, they have husks and they darken or blacken your hands with the stain of a walnut stain. Apparently the lady had a big banking meeting to go to that night. And my mother said [to the lady], ‘What in the world are you going to do with your hands? They’re all stained, and you have this big dinner tonight!’ She said, ‘Well, honey, I’m proud of these hands. This is how I make my living. There’s nothing wrong with this.’ My mother took that and imparted that on to all of us kids, and I think that is probably something I think about more than anything else: always be proud of what you do.”
Cook’s advice to Dublin graduates is to venture out into the world and have new experiences. “Dublin is a wonderful, wonderful place to grow up, but it’s not the whole world, and you owe it to yourself to explore the world around you,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.