Alice Collins Cook

13 Jan 1926 – 29 May 2026

After a life full of love, laughter and travel Collie Cook passed away peacefully on 29 May 2026 with her four children at her side. Even in her final days she enjoyed visits with many family members, dinners out at her favorite restaurants and time spent with friends.

Her much-loved husband Nathan H. Cook passed in 2005 – and we hope they are reunited now – perhaps enjoying a boat trip together as that was their happy place. They spent 58 happy married years together - but their journey started in 1940 in Ridgewood, New Jersey where Collie met Nate because they were arranged alphabetically in the classroom. When he dropped out of high school to join the Navy at 17, Nate asked Collie if she would write to him and she said ‘Maybe’… but she did write to him while he served in the Pacific and she finished high school and attended Elmira College. It was the beginning of an adventure that would last for decades. They married in 1947 and spent their early married years on the MIT Campus where Nate got his SB, SM, ME and SCD. Over 58 years of marriage they stayed deeply in love and enjoyed entertaining family and friends.

Collie and Nate loved travelling and visited dozens of countries on 5 continents and took many small ship cruises in retirement which they thoroughly enjoyed. Collie travelled around the world with Nate twice including one epic adventure in 1968 with their four children where they spent an entire school year in India.

The MIT community was a center point of Nate and Collie’s life for close to 70 years. In their early life in Concord MA, they would often entertain Nate’s students and colleagues at their home – and then in 1970 they moved onto the MIT Campus to become housemasters of MacGregor House (an all-male dorm) – and took on the job of being ‘local parentis’ for 275 students. They decided to have dinner parties for 70 plus people many times each semester so they could get to know the students – and for every dinner Collie would home cook roast beef, ham or turkey, rice pilaf, homemade baked beans, as well as home baked chocolate chip cookies, brownies and cakes – and they did this for all of their 15 years in residence. While living on Campus Collie also taught English to foreign students’ wives and enjoyed helping them navigate a new culture.

Collie grew up coming to the family home in Eastham on Cape Cod every summer with her family – and then spent every summer in Eastham once she had a family of her own. In retirement Nate and Collie built their own house next to the family house and spent 20 very happy years in North Eastham. Collie was very active in the Eastham Historical Society and played a part in the effort to move and preserve the Nauset Light House. They loved going out on their boat – the Brass Rat – out of Wellfleet harbor – where Collie was always Nate’s treasured first mate. Collie was gifted with the ability to see the best in wherever she was – and loved to say that Wellfleet is “The most beautiful harbor in the World”

Family was at the center of Collie’s life, and she has left a legacy of love and caring. She is survived by her daughters Laddie Cook Welch and Anne Cook Draudt , her sons Jim Cook and Dick Cook, as well as her nine grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews and their children. Collie leaves a hole in many peoples’ hearts. Fortunately, that gap will be filled by the many wonderful memories that she created with everyone she met.

We will all miss her infectious laugh, her steadfast love, and her determination to see the tiniest bit of blue sky on a rainy day.