Bill Cook Comes Back Home to Canton

He spent his first grade of school in nine different schools in nine towns, following his traveling salesman father. But, by the third grade his dad bought three grain elevators near Canton, IL and the moving around was over. Bill Cook spent the rest of his formative years there. At the age of 32, Bill Cook started Cook, Inc with $1,500 in a spare bedroom in a $165/month apartment in Bloomington, IN. Today, Bill Cook is a multi-billionaire, having grown Cook into a leader in the medical device industry.

Cook is best known for his incredible restoration projects in French Lick and West Baden, IN. I’ve written a number of blogs on them, that you can read here.

I was back in Canton this past week doing a talk at their Economic Development annual meeting. I was supposed to do the event in 2008, but was bumped by Bill Cook who was back home in Canton. I would have bumped me, too!

Canton was largely a one industry town, having grown up around The Plow Works, a 33 acre site adjacent to their downtown. Plows were made in Canton from 1852 until International Harvester, which bought the business from the local owners in 1919, closed it down in the early 80s.

Mayor Kevin Meade told me, “The whole town revolved around that plant. Our high school nickname was the Plow Boys and later the Little Giants, named after one of their product lines. The company whistle, which now sits on top of city hall, blew seven times per day and literally ran the whole pace of the town. It was incredibly devastating when they closed down.”

I had visited Canton in the mid 90s to look at the old IH plant and site, but it was well beyond our capabilities at the time. And, today the site still sits there, having gradually been cleaned up from its brownfield status.

And, it might still be an empty site in 2020, but for a letter Mark Rothert, head of ED, wrote to Bill Cook a couple of years ago. Cook invited Rothert and Mayor Meade over to Bloomington to talk about Canton. From that initial meeting and further visits, Cook decided to return home to refurbish the old Randolph Building (shown in picture), a $2 million restoration that opens this month.

Later this year, a new Cook Group factory that will hire 300, opens on the old Plow Works site. My guess is that future investments are on the way for Canton, from the hometown boy who made good and returned home to invest.

After my talk, an elderly lady approached me and said, “I went to school with Bill Cook. We graduated in 1949 and will be celebrating our 60th class reunion in September. I used to date Bill and didn’t think he would ever make more than $1,000/month. I was sure wrong! My one regret in life, is that I wasn’t nicer to him in high school.”

My question to the audience at my talk was, “How many future Bill Cooks do you have in Canton. What are you doing to nurture them into future entrepreneurs? What are you doing to stay in touch with them after they leave home?”

Those are the key questions that every small town should be asking themselves. It could be the difference between having empty buildings and sites, or having vibrant, economic activity in the future.

I Gotta Meet this Guy!

I’ve written several times this year about Bill & Gayle Cook’s efforts to resurrect and restore two early 1900s resorts to their past glory in French Lick, IN. You can see those blogs in our archives (May 3, May 29 and October 16, 2008).

Now, he’s back home in Canton, IL, where he was born and raised (graduated Canton Senior High School, 1949), doing something similar. But, first let me tell you a bit about the Cooks.

They started their business, Cook Group, in 1963, in a spare bedroom of their apartment in Bloomington, IN. The company quickly became a leader in medical technologies and is still headquartered there. The Cook’s have done very well, landing on numerous lists of the wealthiest Americans.

Here is what Forbes said about Bill Cook in October in their Forbes 400 List:

Used blowtorch, soldering iron and plastic tubing to develop cardiovascular catheter. Now the world’s largest privately held medical device manufacturer. Products include stents, embolization coils, needles, vena cava filters. Sales now $1.5 billion. At work by 5 a.m.; eats in company cafeteria.

In June, Cook returned to Canton to purchase two historic downtown buildings that date from the 1880s. Already they have taken off the exterior façade, stabilized the buildings, and are beginning the meticulous restoration of buildings that Cook shopped in as a youth. When completed, the buildings will consist of retail space on the first floor and well-appointed apartments on the second.

And, then last week he was back again to announce plans to rehab an old International Harvester industrial site that has been unoccupied since the early 80s into a new manufacturing plant that will hire 100 jobs and help to bring added vitality to the adjacent downtown. The plant will produce high tech “vascular introducers” or tubes that go into blood vessels so that stents can be inserted.

Cook compared what he is doing to planting a seed, “Once it blossoms, we anticipate the roots will spread throughout the community and nourish further growth.”

And, he returned home with these projects, because, as he added, “My personality came from here.”

We need more Bill Cooks in this world!

Tomorrow: How Canton enticed Bill Cook back home.

French Lick is Back!

French Lick, IN (population 1,941) used to be an easy place to get to in the days of railroads and that is why its natural springs were a favorite destination for many famous families in the early 1900s. Two renowned resorts were built within months of each other in 1901 and 1902. The West Baden’s six story atrium was the world’s largest free-span dome until the Houston Astrodome was built in 1965, quite an engineering feat for the early 1900s.

During the Prohibition Era, French Lick boasted 13 casinos, all of them illegal. One was owned by Indiana’s Democratic Party Boss and another by its Republican Party Boss, protected by both sides of the political aisle in Indianapolis. In 1949 the last of these illegal casinos was shut down by a reformist governor and French Lick slowly spiraled down into obscurity.

The town’s “15 Minutes of Fame” occurred when native son Larry Bird achieved basketball fame at Indiana State and with the Boston Celtics as the “Hick from French Lick.” Bird still maintains a modest home in the countryside a couple of miles outside of town.

In 2003, Bill Cook of nearby Bloomington, who achieved billionaire status (estimated by Forbes at $3.2 billion) with his medical device manufacturing company that he started with his wife at their dining room table, bought both of the old resorts and began the painstaking task of renovating them, along with building a new casino. My wife and I visited the French Lick Springs Resort after our trip to Paducah to see the $382 million makeover. We were disappointed that the West Baden Springs resort won’t reopen until June, but were amazed by the makeover of the French Lick Springs, a property we had visited a dozen years before.

During a spa treatment, my wife learned that Mr. Cook paid the 400 employees of the resort their full salaries during the reconstruction. Since reopening, employment has increased to over 1,000.

A trip to French Lick is well worth the drive. Seeing what someone like a Bill Cook can do is amazing.

That Famous Brain Bank

Many towns that I visit bemoan the fact that, “there aren’t any jobs here. Everyone moves away as soon as they can. We are down on our luck.”

If you are one of those towns, pay attention to my blog of yesterday and this one today. Bill Cook was born and raised in Canton, IL, and went onto great fame and fortune, starting his own medical equipment company. But, he did all of that in Bloomington, IN, where he went to college.

Mark Rothert, head of the Spoon River Partnership for Economic Development in Canton, wrote to Cook a year ago. Here is what the letter said:

Dear Mr. Cook:

My name is Mark Rothert and although we have never met we share a common bond of growing up in Canton, Illinois. I read an article about you in the Dec./Jan. 2007 issue of "Bloom Magazine" and thought I would write.

Canton has probably changed since you grew up here, but it was a great community then and still is today with much potential. However, Canton does face some major challenges. They include the former International Harvester Brownfield site, deteriorating housing, fewer employment opportunities, and a declining downtown.

I am the director of the Spoon River Partnership for Economic Development, a local 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit economic development organization for the Canton area, tasked with bringing new development, jobs, investment and business to the area, including revitalizing the downtown and the former IH site. I understand you played an integral role in the revitalization of Bloomington's downtown. I would be interested to come to Bloomington and meet with you to learn more about your past projects, talk about what we hope to achieve in Canton, and gauge your interest to help.

Basketball and music aside, I know you also deeply care about community, preservation, and producing results out of ideas. Your philanthropy in the Bloomington area to provide for the community, preserve historical sites and create results is truly admirable. It reminds me of what the Orendorffs and Ingersolls did in Canton so many years ago. Canton was once a booming town but has taken many hits over the past 30 years as I am sure you are aware. However with the support of successful Canton natives, we can become as proud of our city's future as we are of its past.

Thank you for your time and consideration of my request.

Cordially yours,Mark A. RothertExecutive DirectorSpoon River Partnership for Economic Development

Two weeks later, Mark Rothert received the following letter back:

Dear Mark:

Thank you for your letter. As you know, Canton has always been a special place for me.You are more than welcome to visit Bloomington and discuss the problems I see in Canton. We can tour Bloomington and have a look at what has happened in the last 25 years to this city. Mrs. Aimee Hawkins-Mungle has my itinerary and she can set up a day we can be together.

Best regards,

William A. CookChief Executive OfficerCook Group Incorporated

From that letter and subsequent visits Cook has begun a major reinvestment into his hometown. Do you have any Bill Cooks that used to live in your hometown?

Write to them today!

105 Year Old Beauty Open After 75 Years!

Earlier this month I wrote about a trip my wife and I made to the newly reopened French Lick Resort in rural French Lick, IN. Bill Cook, a self-made billionaire from nearby Bloomington, IN invested $382 million into the renovation of the French Lick Resort and nearby West Baden Springs Hotel. He reopened the West Baden Springs Hotel last week after being closed to guests since 1932.

When West Baden was built in 1902 it was called the “eighth wonder of the world” for its 110-foot free-span dome, the largest of its kind until the opening of the Houston Astrodome in the 1960s. The hotel’s original 508 guest rooms were restored and reconfigured into 246 modern rooms and suites.

“You only read things like this in fairy tales,” local State Representative Jerry Denbo said at the ribbon cutting. He added, “We have two grand hotels out here in the sticks of Indiana and we’re truly blessed.”

Bill Cook said, “We’ve come a long ways. This building could have been history. Now, it’s here for history, and it’s here for people to enjoy.”

Only a local person, with ties to the area would invest almost $400 million into a dream of past grandeur in an out-of-the-way place like French Lick.

Incredible Restoration

It was called the “8th Wonder of the World” when it was built in 1902, having the largest free-standing dome in the world. It wasn’t until the Astrodome was built in 1965 that a larger dome was built!

West Baden Springs was built in less than a year at a cost of $414,000. It was a world famous haven for celebrities, politicians and underworld figures until the Great Depression when it was sold to Jesuits for $1 and was operated as a seminary for 30 years. Then it fell into disrepair.

Fortunately, in the mid 90s Bill and Gayle Cook from nearby Bloomington, IN together with the Historic Landmark Foundation of Indiana purchased and stabilized the rapidly deteriorating masterpiece. My wife and I were there in the early 90s and it was way beyond what I ever thought was salvageable. But thanks to the Cooks, West Baden Springs is back to its old glory.

The Cooks have invested over $500 million into the preservation, restoration and revival of both the West Baden Springs Hotel and the nearby French Lick Springs Hotel, another turn-of-the-century destination hotel/spa.

Only a local couple like the Cooks would have dared to take on a project like this, pouring their heart and soul in addition to their money into a project that restores a wonderful part of southern IN history.