‘Chief Chronicler’ and ‘Inveterate Rascal’ Wraps Up 20 Years

While pursuing his undergraduate degree in magazine journalism and English at Syracuse University, Dana Cooke ’81 found himself drawn to Maxwell courses. His transcript offers a lengthy list of electives that nowadays would easily meet the requirements for a minor in history.

Cooke soaked up the lessons in religion and politics in Ralph Ketcham’s team-taught public affairs course. Arthur Legacy’s “Radicalism and Dissent in Film” was a study in critical thinking. “Half of everything I understand about politics and debate and propaganda I discovered in that class,” Cooke says of the latter.

Those experiences planted in Cooke a seed that bloomed into a long career telling Maxwell’s stories as the editor of this magazine and various other alumni and development publications.

Cooke retired on Aug. 21. The pandemic prevented the kind of fanfare his colleagues would have liked, though they did not let the occasion go unmarked: On a rainy, late summer day, Cooke and his wife, JoAnn, watched from their front yard a drive-by parade of well-wishing faculty and staff.

“As Maxwell’s chief chronicler for more than two decades, Dana used his strong sense of professionalism and commitment to good citizenship to tell the School’s ongoing record of success, and to tell it so very well,” says Robert McClure, professor emeritus of political science and public affairs who, as senior associate dean, hired Cooke in 2000.

“Less visibly, he was an inveterate rascal, who enriched colleagues with his sardonic wit, sneaky-quick rejection of can’t, and hootenanny guitar playing. He is the most un-straight-laced, steadfastly loyal Maxwellian you are ever likely to encounter.”

Indeed, Cooke was known for his dry wit, his occasional offerings of produce (he is an avid gardener) and for his other gig as a performing amateur musician, nicknamed “Short Order” (get it? Short Order Cooke).

Before Maxwell, Cooke worked as a small-town journalist and in various communications roles for SU, Upstate Medical University and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

The Maxwell Perspective was a focus of Cooke’s recent position. “As editor, I came to know how solid and laudable Maxwell’s mission is, how well that mission is met, and how fully students, faculty and graduates rally around it,” he says. “It’s rewarding and straightforward to do communication work for an institution that knows and values itself as much as Maxwell does, and to inform alumni who truly love their school.”

Cooke’s collection of favorite experiences includes a breakfast interview with the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan shortly after he returned to the faculty in 2001. Another top story: In 2009, Cooke uncovered the history of the iconic Abraham Lincoln statue in Maxwell’s courtyard.

The most profound piece, though, was a tribute to his professor, Ketcham, following his death in 2018 at age 89. “The article I wrote sought to weave the observations of others into an understanding and appreciation of Ralph, but I undoubtedly put some of myself in it, too,” says Cooke. “Ralph Ketcham was a hero to me. Plus, as I wrote about him, I found myself writing about the school, crowning most of what I had written about Maxwell through the years, as crystallized by this one teacher’s legacy. Much of what I find laudable about the

Maxwell School was represented in Ralph.”

The significance of content that came from Maxwell’s more than 34,000 alumni was never lost on Cooke. The Class Notes often took up several back pages (as is the case with this edition — see pages 32 to 37). How many did Cooke oversee in a nearly 40-year career in college publications?

The question piques his interest. “While editing alumni magazines, I probably witnessed at least 20,000 brief snippets of careers and life pass beneath my editor’s pen, and possibly close to 25,000,” he says following some perfunctory math.

— Jessica Youngman

Editor’s Note: Those of you who have received past editions of the Perspective will no doubt notice that this edition has a different look and some new elements. We hope you find some things you like and expect you will find a few things we can work on. Putting out the first edition as the new editor following the legacy of my predecessor has been no small task, but I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity. The stories in the pages that follow have been an honor to write and edit and provided a great window into the inspiring Maxwell community. Your feedback is valued, along with story ideas and updates. Drop me a note at MaxwellPerspective@syr.edu. —Jessica Youngman