Richard E. Cook

Richard E. Cook
Richard E. Cook
Second Quorum of the Seventy
	April 5, 1997 – October 6, 2001
Called by	Gordon B. Hinckley
End reason	Honorably released
Personal details
Born	Richard Ernest Cook; September 7, 1930; Pleasant Grove, Utah, United States
Died	May 1, 2024 (aged 93); Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
	Biography portal LDS movement portal
	Biography portal LDS movement portal

Richard Ernest Cook (September 7, 1930–May 1, 2024) was a former general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and was also the chief financial officer for the Perpetual Education Fund. He was married to Mary N. Cook, a young women leader in the LDS Church. Cook was the first mission president of the LDS Church in Mongolia.

Cook was born in Pleasant Grove, Utah. He received a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and an MBA degree from Northwestern University. He spent most of his career as a financial executive with Ford Motor Company. He married Clea Searle in 1950 and they had four children. She died in 1984. He married Mary Nielsen in 1988.

He served in the LDS Church as a counselor in the presidency of the Bloomfield Hills Michigan Stake. In the mid-1990s, Cook and his wife, Mary, went to Mongolia to serve as missionaries for the LDS Church. He served as the first mission president in Mongolia. He was a member of the church's Second Quorum of the Seventy from 1997 to 2001. During much of this time he served in the Asia Area presidency.

From 2001 to 2012, Cook served as the chief financial officer of the Perpetual Education Fund. On October 13, 2023, Ambassador Batbayar Ulziidelger presented Cook with the Order of the Polar Star.^[1]

Cook died in Salt Lake City on May 1, 2024, at the age of 93.^[2]

References

“Elder Richard E. Cook Of the Seventy,” Ensign, May 1997, p. 103
Deseret News 2008 Church Almanac (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Morning News, 2007) pp. 103, 422–423