Second Feature

Dr. Clyde Cook served as Biola University’s president for 25 years, from 1982 to 2007, with a unique background as an educator, administrator and fourth-generation missionary.

Both his great-grandparents and grandparents were missionaries to China, and his mother followed in their footsteps. While traveling there by ship, she met her future husband, an officer on the ship, and a year later was married to this Christian sea captain from Scotland.

Born in Hong Kong, the fourth of six children, Clyde was faced with adversity at an early age when the Cook family was imprisoned in three different concentration camps during World War II. In 1942, by God’s grace they were reunited in South Africa.

After five years in South Africa, the Cooks came to the United States and settled in Laguna Beach, California, where Clyde was named California Interscholastic Federation basketball player of the year in 1953. He was offered athletic scholarships to thirteen different major universities, but chose to attend—and become an outstanding player for—Biola.

Clyde received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Biola University (1957) and his Master of Divinity (1960) and Master of Theology (1962) from Talbot Theological Seminary. He earned his Doctor of Missiology (1974) at Fuller Theological Seminary.

After graduating from Biola, Clyde served as the school’s Athletic Director from 1957 to 1960. From 1963-1967 he and his wife, Anna Belle, were missionaries with Overseas Crusades (now OC Ministries) in Cebu City in the Philippines. During this time Clyde participated in pastors’ conferences, city-wide crusades, lay institute training, youth conferences and Bible school teaching. In 1971, he spent six months in the Philippines helping to set up theological extension education programs.

Returning to Biola in 1967 as an Assistant Professor of Missions, Clyde was then appointed Director of Intercultural Studies and Missions and helped to develop Biola’s nationally acclaimed program in cross-cultural education. Called to the presidency of OC Ministries in 1978, he ably guided the mission organization to an increased level of financial stability and multiplied foreign field effectiveness.

Clyde served on the Biola Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1982 when he was invited by a unanimous vote of the Board to assume the seventh presidency of Biola University on June 1, 1982. He became president emeritus on July 1, 2007.

Clyde traveled extensively, visiting more than 72 countries in athletic and drama evangelism and to represent Biola University.

On Friday, April 11, 2008, Dr. Cook passed away at his home in Fullerton, California. He is survived by his beloved wife Anna Belle, two children, and six grandchildren. His legacy lives on in the many faculty, staff, graduates and students of Biola.

“ Take God’s calling upon your life with deadly seriousness, but don’t take yourself too seriously.” That piece of wisdom has been a beacon for me to try to follow for most of my Christian life.

But no one has modeled that to me more than Clyde Cook.

I first met Clyde when I came to Biola as a transfer student. I was 23 years old, but only one-and-a-half years old as a Christian. I came to Biola from U.C. Irvine as a psychology major in my junior year, hoping to get some Biblical training before I did graduate work in psychology.

One of the very first classes I took was a study of the book of Acts, taught by Dr. Clyde Cook. I sat in the front row, right on the aisle. I was so close to the podium that I could see Dr. Cook’s brilliant, blue eyes flash with passion as he taught about the expansion of the early church—and twinkle with delight as he told one of his infamous stories.

Dr. Cook didn’t just teach content; he taught to change lives. And my life was permanently changed through that class. I was a Viet Nam war veteran, and I came from a broken and dysfunctional family. But something happened through Dr. Cook’s class—I began to see the great needs of others. He brought in missionaries from around the world, but also guest speakers from the inner cities of the United States, and pastors who would tell of bringing healing to broken marriages and families as they spoke of the power of the gospel of the kingdom.