MONTEGO BAY, St James – Family and friends of the late Justin Cooke, a former People’s National Party councillor and brother of the island’s Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke, will today gather at the Farm Heights United Church to give thanks for his life.

Cooke, the father of 10 children, died at the age of 76, on August 7 following a long battle with cancer. He was, this past week, remembered fondly and with respect by those who mourn his passing.

Claudette Corbett, the director of administration at the St James parish council, recalled him as a no-nonsense councillor.

“I found him to be a very positive, very strict person. And whatever he meant he was not afraid to say it up-front. He was very passionate about the problems he was facing in his division and wanted to see everything done to improve the situation for his constituents. Overall, he took the job of the people’s representative very seriously,” Corbett said of Cooke, who served as councillor for the Barrett Town Division between 1986 and 1990.

On a more personal note, she said, he was supportive of the council staff.

“As an individual I found him to be quite friendly. He had concern for staff and whenever anybody said anything negative about them he was there to defend them,” she said.

Cooke, a Justice of the Peace, was also an agriculturalist and a social worker. After leaving the Jamaica School of Agriculture, he was employed to the Forestry Department before going on to the Cobbla Youth Campaign in Manchester. In the succeeding years, he worked with the All Island Banana Growers Association, the Social Development Commission and the apprenticeship section of the Ministry of Youth and Community Development. He subsequently made his foray into politics and kept abreast of the issues long after he had left office in 1990.

Cooke, meanwhile, has been lauded as a father first and one who was determined to have his children conduct their lives in accordance with high standards.

“He was very, very strict about discipline in the home and he wanted very refined children. He insisted on (good) grades,” said his daughter Kathi-Marie Cooke, who is currently the manager of external affairs with the Jamaica Public Service Company. “When we were at the table, before we picked up a chicken bone we had to ask, ‘may I please finger my bone?'” added a chuckling Kathi, who continues to ask permission to chew her bones.

At the same time, she recalls that her father, who once did a stint as a religious missionary worker in Turk and Caicos, was a great lover of flowers and one who enjoyed seeing the beauty in all things.

“He loved flowers and he always had a beautiful, beautiful garden. He saw beauty in things that were unusual, things that were (seemingly) ordinary,” she said. “My father was a decent human being.”

– williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com