ABSTRACT
Cooke was born in Yorkshire, England. During World War II, he served as a radio operator on a British aircraft carrier, and after the war he obtained a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of London. After a briefly-held job at Philips, he went to work at the British Broadcasting Corporation’s engineering designs department. In 1956, he joined Warfedale Wireless Works, where, among other things, he worked with Gilbert Briggs on a series of books on loudspeaker design, and also assisted Briggs with a series of live –vs. recorded concerts at Royal Festival Hall, in London. Cooke also joined the Audio Engineering Society in 1956, served for some years on the AES British section committee, and was president of the AES Europe region in 1984. In 1961, he founded KEF Electronics, a highly regarded loudspeaker company that was noted for employing unconventional materials and innovative designs, as well as one of the best engineering staffs in the loudspeaker business. In 1979, Cooke was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1980, he won the AES bronze medal, and in 1993 he won the society’s silver medal.
