About Mrs. Cook
The purpose of this page is to let you know a little about the professional and personal background of Susan Cook, the Vocal Music and Drama teacher...a.k.a. ME!
I was born in Joplin, Missouri but was raised in a little western Nebraska town called Grant. My father was a banker there, and my mother was the church choir director and a private vocal instructor. I grew up playing the organ for church and also playing the alto saxophone in the school band.
After graduating from Perkins County High School, I attended Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln and obtained a Church Music Degree with a major in organ and a minor in voice. At NWU, I met my husband, Robert, who also has a music degree, and we spent the first three years of our married life at Ft. Riley, Kansas where he participated in the First Division Marching Band. He then became interested in Broadcast Engineering and has made that his career. His jobs have taken us to Des Plaines, Illinois, Kansas City, Missouri, and Grand Island, Ogallala, and Grant, Nebraska. He is now the Vice President of Engineering for Three Eagles Broadcasting in Lincoln (they own KFOR and KFRX), and oversees maintenance of 37 stations in Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
After graduating from UNL with a degree in Electrical Engineering, our son, Don, is now a Lead Engineer with Raytheon Corporation which is located in Bellevue. His wife, Alison, is a software engineer at the same company, and they have two children: acute little red-headed daughter, Amanda, who turned 3 years old last February and an 8 month old baby named Eliana. While in college, Don participated in the Cornhusker Marching Band, and he and Alison have also performed together in a country/rock band.
Our daughter, Stephanie, also graduated from UNL with a Master's Degree in trumpet performance. She is an avid artist and is presently forming her own purse business, and she is the Chidrens MusicHandbell Director at First Presbyterian Church here in Lincoln. She is married to Mark Nelson who is the Manager of managers of several First National Bank locations in Nebraska. They also have a little daughter, Camryn, who is a very active 3 year old.
After graduating from NWU, I spent a few years staying home with my children and then commuted to the University of Nebraska at Kearney to obtain my Music Education Certificate. I have the endorsement to teach K-12 vocal and instrumental music and have taught at all of those levels in Kansas and in Madrid/Elsie, Ogallala and Maxwell, Nebraska. Here in Lincoln I have taught at Lincoln Lutheran, Lux Middle School and Calvert Elementary School before coming to Pound nine years ago. I have also accrued over 45 hours in graduate classes in music, drama and computer instruction.
I have always had a church music job somewhere and recently retired from Saint Paul United Methodist Church where I directed Children's Choirs, Handbell Choirs, and served at Contemporary Music Instrumental Director and assistant organist for the past ten years. I am presently employed as organist at Southview Christian Church here in Lincoln. My experience in drama has included leading roles in my jr. and sr. high school play productions, and several minor roles in plays at Nebraska Wesleyan University. I especially enjoyed working on the costume crew. I have played the piano for many high school and community musicals, and continue to add drama to many of my music programs at school.
My hobbies are crocheting, knitting, cross stitch, jewlery making and I've just become interested in making stained glass windows. I am also starting a business in recording which is called "Simple Songs." and will soon open my own piano studio called the "Melody Music Academy." I also love to play with my little dog, Snickers, a "treeing feist" breed...trained to chase squirrels up trees. (Check out the treeing feist web page.)
Please feel free to call me at any time if you have questions or comments. Being a real "people person" (my husband calls me that), I would love to talk to all of you anytime.