Carleton History Department marks the passing of Historian Tim Cook

The Carleton History Department mourns the loss of Historian and colleague Tim Cook. Tim was best known for his work as a historian at the Canadian War Museum, but he also collaborated with the History department as an adjunct research professor. He taught several upper level courses  for which he was recognized with teaching awards and was a very valued graduate supervisor for many students. He had a passion to communicate his specialty, Canadian military history, to a wide audience. As such he could often be heard on the radio talking about soldiers or other topics related to military history. Audiences got a sense of his deep compassion for these men and his desire to humanize their experiences. He was committed to good writing without shirking extensive and painstaking archival research. He believed that the discipline of history was an art as well as a science.  His writing was prolific; in all, he published nineteen books as well as many scholarly journal articles.  For this production, he was awarded many book prizes and recognitions along with an Order of Canada and an election to the Royal Society. Norman Hillmer, Chancellor’s Professor emeritus, described him as “the outstanding military historian of Canada of his generation, combining a relentless productivity and insistent scholarship with an accessible prose style that won him extensive academic and popular recognition.”

Tim Cook’s work and words will live on but he will be sorely missed.