CORNISH — Back in the 1970s, Fred and Shirley Sullivan were struggling financially with the dairy farm off Route 120 they took over after Fred’s father had passed away.
With 150 cows to milk, hay to cut and numerous other jobs to keep the farm running, the Sullivans needed some hired hands but the money was not there.
It was around this time, Fred Sullivan recalled recently, that he fell into conversation with his fellow volunteer firefighter, Dale Rook, at the fire station one day.
“He asked how things were going on the farm, and I said not good and financially things are tight, I can’t afford to hire any help.”
Sullivan didn’t need to say anything more. It was a situation tailor-made for the selfless Rook: assist a neighbor in need and expect nothing in return, save for the satisfaction of serving his friend and strengthening the bonds of his community.
Rook not only offered to help but also bring along others, including his children. Rook frequently donated his time on the farm helping wherever he was needed. One weekend stands out for Sullivan.
“I told him I didn’t know how I would get all the hay in, and Dale, said, ‘We’ll get the hay in for you,’ ” Sullivan said.
Rook organized a group of volunteers, and in one weekend, they finished 50 acres of hay, Sullivan said.
“If I ever needed help, I could give Dale a call and he would round up people or if he couldn’t he would come and do it himself,” Sullivan said.
There are many others in Cornish who would say the same thing about Rook, who died from cancer at home surrounded by his family on Jan. 22, 2019, about two months shy of his 80th birthday.
“Dale was a great neighbor and a great volunteer,” said former Selectwoman Merilynn Bourne, who had known Rook for more than 40 years. “Everything he did was with the well-being of the town in mind. If you needed a helping hand, he was right there. Pretty much a rock-solid human being.”
One could be forgiven for believing Rook had an identical twin brother roaming the roads of Cornish, helping neighbor and stranger alike while volunteering for his town and community, working full time, raising his family with his wife Judy and engaging in several hobbies, including photography, local history and coin collecting. It’s the only plausible explanation for the ubiquitous Rook, whose active life overflowed with love of family and service to others that it seems at times he had to be in two places at once.
“If it needed to be done, he just did it,” said his daughter Sheri. “And he was so humble about it. He never bragged about it and never wanted recognition.”
But recognition he received.
In 2010, Rook and his wife, Judy, were the Sullivan County recipients of the Joseph D. Vaughn Award for the outstanding volunteer work on behalf of older residents in their community. Colleen O’Neill, who had known the Rooks since the 1990s, submitted the nomination.
The long list of volunteer work cited in the nomination ranged from high profile positions including more than 40 years on the Cornish Volunteer Fire Department to the little acts of kindness like shoveling walkways and taking the elderly to appointments and shopping as part of the town’s Neighbor to Neighbor Group.
“He always had to stay busy,” said O’Neill. “He was just helpful and kind all the time. Whenever someone needed something done and he could take care of it, he did it and usually quietly. I think the entire community mourns his loss.”
Recently the family — Judy and the Rooks’ four grown children, Heidi, Todd, Sheri and Jason — gathered in the family home to remember their husband and father. As the memories poured out, the room filled with laughter and a portrait of Rook as someone with an unshakable love of family and community emerged. The Rook children remember well the Sullivan farm, where they spent several summers helping and having fun.
“There was a pond there for swimming, and we used to sleep under the trees at night unless it was cold; then we went in the barn and slept on the hay,” Todd remembered.
From the volunteer crews he organized at the farm, Todd said his father became acquainted with a few snowmobilers and decided to buy a machine.
“We had snowmobile jamborees up at the farm and played snowmobile soccer with brooms,” Todd said.
It was all part of Rook’s gift for making community the centerpiece of just about everything he did.
Rook was born in Windsor on March 18, 1939, to Fred and Alyce (Wheelock). His father did home repair on refrigeration, heating, plumbing and electrical. A “jack of all trades,” said daughter Heidi.
“Dad’s mentor was his father,” she continued. “He learned and appreciated a lot of things from him. It was a no frill sort of thing; just a work hard ethic and Dad’s career motto became this community outreach.”
In high school Rook had a paper route and earned his Eagle Scout rank, which the family said marked the unofficial start of his inclination to always want to serve others. After graduation, he spent three years in the Army where he played trumpet and French horn in the 279th Army band.
Upon his discharge in 1960, Rook married his high school sweetheart, Judy Howard of Cornish.
“I knew who he was. I picked him out in my freshman year because I liked his looks,” Judy said with a laugh. “I finally was brave enough to talk to him in my sophomore year, and at the end of sophomore year, we started dating.”
“He did say he liked the one from Cornish who was cute and had the deep voice,” Heidi added.
In 1962, the Rooks moved into a new home on nearly 3 acres on Town House Road. For the next nearly 60 years the couple would dive into numerous volunteer endeavors whenever and wherever they could help. The fire department, Cornish Fair, the recycling center and the rescue squad, which Rook was a founding member, to name just a few.
“There were a few incidents and no one showed up to help, so a few of us got together and said we needed to do something about this. These people needed help and no one was there to help them,” Judy said about the origin of the rescue squad in the early 1970s.
A few couples paid for their own EMT course and it grew from there with pagers, radios and a building.
“We did a lot of these things together,” Judy said about her husband of 58 years. “We were a team.”
Rook served 25 years on the rescue squad and 40 years on the volunteer fire department where he was president for nine years and assistant chief for 14 years.
The Rook “team” also spent just about every Saturday at the recycling center for 13 years.
John Hammond, chairman of the Selectboard, expresses amazement, as most do, at all that Rook was involved with as a volunteer.
“I think except for the Selectboard, Dale served on every single board or commission in town,” Hammond said. “He had a long history of community involvement and he was just a really nice guy and a very giving person.”
At the recycling, wood was dropped off by the town or donated by residents and volunteers came over on a Saturday to split it and give it out at no cost.
“He was one of those actively involved in that,” Hammond said.
Rook, who was honored posthumously at this year’s Town Meeting with the Cornish Conservation Award, worked as a prison guard in Windsor for 12 years and a security guard first at Mary Hitchcock Hospital and then Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for 25 years, retiring in 2001.
In 1980 he bought a machine for sharpening tools and taught himself how to use it, providing services for a nominal fee or for free to anyone needing something sharpened.
“My sister use to bring her knives up when she visited from Maryland and he sharpened them for a dollar,” O’Neill said.
Between his volunteering and job, it’s logical to think Rook could not have been around much while his children were growing up but they will tell you differently.
“We never felt like Dad was never here,” Jason said. “He was always here even though he worked a full day.”
When Rook worked nights, Todd said he was there in the morning when they got up for school and would have dinner with the family at 6 every night.
When their father was Cornish Fair director for many years, the family was together as the children and Judy were on hand to set up booths and do other chores.
They were even part of the rescue squad training. “We were patients on the ground,” laughed Heidi.
One enduring memory is the used 1964 CJ5 Jeep Rook bought.
When it was no longer road worthy, Rook helped his children rebuild the body, at least twice.
“When the body rusted off it we built a new body out of wood, and every one of us kids, it was a three-speed on the floor, learned on that Jeep because we have a big sand pit over here, and at 12-years old, I was driving it all over,” said Jason, laughing as he told the story.
After Rook died, about three months after he had undergone cancer surgery, the family was comforted by the outpouring of sympathy from hundreds who attended his services or wrote to them.
“Every single one of the cards said how important Dale was to the community,” Judy said. “What an icon he was, what a pillar of the community and how much help he so many people in the town of Cornish.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
