Dr. Melvin A. Cook, 89 internationally renowned scientist and inventor, died Thursday, October 12, 2000 at LDS Hospital following recent surgery. He was a former Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Utah and founder of several commercial enterprises manufacturing industrial explosives.
Dr. Cook intro-duced the world to slurry explosives, one of the world's safest, most powerful and cost-effective com-mercial explosives. This invention allowed the economical development of natural resources in mines throughout the world. At the centennial celebration of Alfred Nobel's invention of dynamite, Dr. Cook was awarded the Nitro-Nobel Gold Medallion in 1968 in Stockholm, Sweden.
In recognition of this and other scientific achievements, Dr. Cook received several other distinguished awards. The E. V. Murphree Award of the American Chemical Society in 1968 and the Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists in 1973 are among them.
Dr. Cook was born to Alonzo Laker Cook and Maude Osmond at Swan Creek, Garden City, Utah October 10, 1911. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Utah in chemistry. In 1934 he left Utah to pursue his graduate studies at Yale University where he received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1937. After his first year at Yale, he married Wanda Garfield June 19, 1935 in the Salt Lake Temple.
One of Dr. Cook's most important scientific contributions is the "Thermohydrodynamic Theory and Mechanism of Detonation" which he developed in 1942 as a research chemist at the DuPont Company. Along with his theoretical and applied work at DuPont, he made a significant improvement in the shaped charge for the bazooka which enabled it to be a more effective anti-tank weapon during World War II. For this he received a special award from the U.S. Army in 1992.
Dr. Cook left the East in 1947 to accept a professorship at the University of Utah, which he held until 1970. In addition to teaching, he was also the Director of the Institute of Metals and Explosives Research and made important scientific contributions in the fields of flotation, adsorption of gases on solids, universal gravitation, and detonation-generated plasma.
Dr. Cook published over 200 scientific articles in leading journals, and wrote six books, including classics in the field of explosives, "The Science of High Explosives", American Chemical Society Monograph No. 139, and "The Science of Industrial Explosives". He patented over 100 inventions.
For years he was a consultant for many companies throughout the world. He served as an expert witness in numerous cases involving accidental explosions. One of these was the famous Texas City disaster of 1947, where two shiploads of ammonium nitrate fertilizer blew up in the harbor, killing over 600 people.
A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dr. Cook served in a bishopric, as branch president and high councilor. He was a profound student of the scriptures and contributed several books and pamphlets on aspects of science and religion, including "Science and Mormonism".
Survivors include his wife Wanda; three sons, M. Garfield (Margo Taylor); Merrill A. (Camille Sanders); Krehl O. (Lauri Stimpson); and two daughters, Barbara (Dr. S. Keith) Petersen; Virginia (Dr. Gill O.) Sanders, all of Salt Lake City; 31 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren; brothers, Owen J., Grand Terrace, California; Vernon O., Salt Lake City; and sisters, Vera Hunsaker, North Salt Lake; Maurine Winterton and Lois Canning, both of Salt Lake City. He was preceded in death by: three brothers, Grant, Glenn and Noel; sister Phyllis (G. Gill) Smith.
Funeral services will be held at 12 noon Tuesday, October 17, 2000 at the Arlington Hills Ward Chapel, 1300 East Fairfax Road (Virginia Street). Friends and family may call at the Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary, 2350 East 1300 South, Monday evening from 6-8 p.m. and Tuesday morning at the ward from 10:30-11:40 a.m. Interment Bothwell Cemetery west of Tremonton, Utah.