The public funeral service for former U.S. Rep. Merrill A. Cook, R-Utah, will be held at noon on Saturday, July 18, at the White Memorial Chapel, 150 E. 300 North, in Salt Lake City.
Cook was known as a “maverick” for his forays into politics and ran for Congress several times, both as an independent and as a Republican. He died March 9 in Salt Lake City at age 79.
Cook served two terms in Congress, representing Utah’s 2nd Congressional District from 1997 to 2001.
Cook was married to Camille Sanders and they had five children. She died in 2015.
In a news release at the time of Cook’s death, his son David called Cook “a proud husband, father, entrepreneur and one of Utah’s most distinctive and independent public servants.” He wrote that his dad “combined success in business with civic service and was deeply devoted to his family, education and politics.”
One of Cook’s hallmarks, according to family, was voting his conscience, which sometimes got him in trouble with party leadership. “He didn’t feel party affiliation should determine how he voted or talked,” David Cook told Deseret News.
In the business realm, he and his father co-founded Cook Slurry Company, a company that made mining explosives. He was the CEO and president.
