John Williston Cook left a towering legacy on higher education in Illinois at the turn of the century. The founding president of Northern Illinois University, buildings are named for him at two of the state’s major universities.
Cook served as president of Illinois State University from 1890-99, then left Normal to become the first president of NIU. Like Illinois State, NIU was founded as an institution for teacher training (“normal school” in the terminology of the time).
Cook remained in DeKalb for 20 years, and was praised as “the best normal school president in the United States.”
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Born on April 20, 1844, in Oneida County, New York, Cook moved with his family at age 7 to McLean County, where his father was an Illinois Central Railroad local superintendent.
Cook later enrolled at Illinois State, earning a degree in 1865. He was part of the sixth graduating class in university history. Cook spent one year as principal of the Brimfield schools in 1865-66 before returning to Normal as principal of the model school.
Even as a young alumnus, Cook maintained close relations with his alma mater, both personally and professionally. On Aug. 26, 1867, he married Lydia Spafford, the sister-in-law of founding university President Charles Hovey.
In 1868, Cook was elevated to the university faculty at ISU, teaching history and geography. After one year, he became a professor of reading and elocution, remaining until an appointment as professor and chair of mathematics and physics in 1876.
A prolific writer, Cook co-authored a comprehensive history of Illinois State for the school’s 25th anniversary in 1882. From 1884-88, he was the editor and publisher of the periodical Illinois School Journal.
During Cook’s tenure on the faculty, the theory of Herbartianism gained traction across the nation as a pedagogy based on repetition and morality (or, in four steps, clarity, association, system, and method). Illinois State was considered the center of American Herbartianism, which was the most popular pedagogy in the nation at the time.
Cook was a passionate believer in Herbartianism and employed that thinking in his classrooms. He became even more influential in promoting those methods in 1890 when he was named the fourth president in university history. In that role, Cook both encouraged, and funded, students who wished to study abroad.
Cook also left an imprint on campus. Since its inception, the university had managed with a single building, “Old Main,” but that was about to change. Cook secured funding for a second academic building, North Hall, as well as a new, castle-like gymnasium, now known as Cook Hall.
By now, Cook was a star in the field and was in demand as a speaker at conventions and other public gatherings. Some media outlets called him “the Crown Prince of Teacher Education.”
However, by the end of the 1890s, Cook’s time in Normal was nearing an end, due to changes at Illinois State and the decline of Herbartianism. In 1899, Cook left to help found a new institution, Northern Illinois Normal.
Cook, who had demanded the right to hire his own faculty at Northern “without interference on the part of anyone,” assembled a curriculum, faculty members, a librarian, a student body, and student housing – all in just four months.
He also left an indelible imprint on public education in DeKalb, as he envisioned the city’s elementary school system under the watch of the university, to assist in the training of teachers. As part of the deal, a school was built on the NIU campus at no cost to the city.
Cook also was given the right to hire a DeKalb school superintendent, who was chosen from the faculty at NIU.
Cook remained at NIU as a revered figure through 1919 and was beloved by students, in the words of the university yearbook, for his “warmth and dedication.” He served as president of the National Education Association in 1904.
In 1912, he authored The Educational History of Illinois, which was heavy on the ISU narrative despite his lengthy career at Northern.
The first residence hall for women at NIU was named in Cook’s honor in 1915, using his middle name, Williston. Cook, who loved automobiles, resided in a grand home at 411 College Ave. in DeKalb that still stands.
Weeks after his retirement as NIU president, Cook was driving on July 27, 1919, when he suffered a medical issue that may have been either sunstroke or physical exhaustion. He died at his home in Chicago on July 15, 1922.
Two days later, an editorial in the Bloomington Pantagraph waxed poetic on Cook, calling him “a great lover of trees. He himself planted a tree in the world, the tree of knowledge and of love.”
• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.