In 1974, Judge Cooke was elected to the Court of Appeals. See his full biography HERE.
Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke was born in Monticello in Sullivan County on October 15, 1914. After graduating from Albany Law School, he was admitted to the Bar in 1939. He was elected in 1955 as County Judge and Surrogate of Sullivan County and re-elected in 1959. In 1961, he was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court for the Third Judicial District. He was designated to the Appellate Division, Third Department, in 1968 by Gov. Rockefeller and served there until his election to the Court of Appeals in 1974. He was appointed the 20th Chief Judge by Gov. Carey on January 2, 1979. He retired from the Court of Appeals at the end of 1984 at the age of 70. He died in 2000.