I am sure that others will give you a more rounded picture of Cook and
his genius.  But here are a couple of facts.

He was a black man, married only to his music as far as I know.  Your
mistakenly placing him in Buffalo must derive from the fact that QRS is
now located in that city.  But for more years -- the Imperial
Industrial years when the company was owned by Max Kortlander, himself
an arranger/sometime-composer (Tell Me, Too Many Kisses Mean Too Many
Tears, Scatter Your Smiles) -- QRS was located in the Bronx.  So Cook
worked out of New York City.

He was also the arranger for the B.A.B. Organ Company from the 1930's
on, and is responsible for virtually all its band organ rolls.  He also
did free-lance arranging in his spare time, though judging from a
letter he wrote which I have a copy of, there wasn't ever much of that.
Unfortunately Cook drank heavily, and that sometimes interfered with
his work schedule.

Matthew Caulfield