Timothy Richard Cooke

Growing up in New York City, he attended Collegiate School. Drawn to the desert, he enrolled at the University of Arizona but was drafted after his sophomore year to serve in the US Army Infantry in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. While on leave and staying with his family on Manhattan’s East 71st Street, he first met Elizabeth Mary Cooke (née Larocca) at Malachy’s on Lexington Ave and 73rd.

After they married on August 24th, 1969 they returned to Tucson so Tim could finish his geography degree on the GI bill. They returned to the northeast in 1976 where he began his long career at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and raised their family in Niskayuna, NY. After retirement, Tim and Liz purchased a home in Tucson’s Catalina Foothills, eventually spending most of each year there.

He is survived by Elizabeth, daughter Jessica Klau and husband Kenneth, son Peter and wife Amelia Cooke, son Christopher Cooke and grandchildren Amelie and Eli Klau. His family remembers him for his love of nature and gardening. He chased lizards well into adulthood.

A Memorial Service will be held at East Lawn Palms at 11:00 am on March 2nd. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.