Dick V. Cook Papers

Richard V. “Dick” Cook is a community organizer, non-profit grassroots consultant, and Professor of Social Work in Baltimore. He received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964, and he earned his Masters in Social Work from the University of Maryland in 1972. Cook was the Director of Social Work Community Outreach Service at University of Maryland School of Social Work from 1995 to 2013. He served as the director of the Greater Homewood Association in the 1970s.

While Cook was a student at UC, Berkeley, he became interested in community organizing and Civil Rights activism and participated in Sather Gate lunches and Freedom Rides. After college, Cook worked for the Alameda County Welfare Department as a General Assistance Caseworker. In the 1960s he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela. Later in the 1960s, he organized around hunger issues in rural Maine, and helped build a health center in the Yakima Valley for the United Farm Workers Co-op. At the end of the 1960s he became involved in anti-Vietnam activities. He also studied nonviolence and direct action at Quaker College in Birmingham, England, and under George Lakey at Woodbrooke College.

A long-time Baltimore resident, Cook was involved in organizing efforts in the Greater Homewood neighborhood. After he received his Masters in Social Work in 1972, Cook joined the Greater Homewood Community Corporation as its Executive Director. Under his leadership, Greater Homewood Community Corporation grew to serve fifteen Baltimore neighborhoods, providing a voice for over 45,000 Baltimore residents.

In the 1970s, Cook became a private consultant on issues surrounding grassroots organizing and citizens involvement. His work involved training for the VISTA program in several mid-atlantic states. He remained involved locally and worked on projects related to Baltimore’s water quality, and other local health issues.

In 1981, Cook founded and served as the first Executive Director of the Neighborhoods Institute, which provided training and support to over fifty other grassroots organizations.

Later in the 1980s, Cook helped found Community Share, an independent fundraising foundation for activist organizations. He also returned to private consulting for grassroots organizations. Clientele included Families USA Foundation, Hands Across America, National Abortion Rights Action League, Enterprise Foundation, Campaign for Human Development. He also completed fundraising studies for these organizations; the Corporation for American Indian Development, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

Cook served as a board member for these organizations: National Alliance for Choice in Giving, Community Share USA, Community Share Baltimore, and was a member of the National Society of Fundraising Executives, Maryland Chapter. In 1987, he received a Fundraising/Development Certificate from the Goucher Center for Continuing Studies.

Cook has taught at the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work, Goucher College, and the Community College of Baltimore. From 1995 until his retirement in 2013 Cook was the Director of its Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS) program at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Cook has published articles in many journals and magazines such as the “International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy,” “Journal of Community Practice,” “Social Policy Magazine,” and others. He has written and contributed to a number of training guides and other publications, some of which include: “Guide to Volunteer Phonathons” (1995) and “They Might Say Yes: How to Fund Raise for Energy Assistance Dollars” (1994). He was a contributing author for two books: “Building Neighborhood Organizations” by James Cunningham and Milton Kotler (1982), and “Strengthening Volunteer Initiatives” by Libby Leonard, Bill Ariano and Ellen Ryan (1981).

Information for this Biographical Note came in part from materials in the collection.