Maurice Cooke 1915-2010
Maurice Cooke, who died in May 2010 aged 94, had degrees in Law (Birmingham 1936) and History (Oxford 1945) and came to Bangor in 1949 as a Lecturer in the History of the Institutions of Government. Very soon, however, he began to give informal talks about paintings and architecture, where his real interests lay. He developed a course on the art of the Renaissance in his department and in the early 60's became a Senior Lecturer in the History of Art.
In that role he took part in the development of the University Art Gallery (now the Gwynedd Museum and of Art Gallery) and was curator until 1969. He arranged for some memorable exhibitions to be shown in Bangor, contributing reviews to the Guardian newspaper. As a member of the university Art Committee he was active in the arrangements for the T. Rowland Hughes annual art lectures, often providing the introduction to the visiting speaker. He also served for some years on the Art sub/committee of the Welsh Arts Council. In his first years in Bangor, Maurice was a tutor in the men's hall of residence, Neuadd Reichel. Here he regularly kept 'open house' for students and colleagues to join him in listening to music on his (then very new) Hi Fi gramophone, and to see his growing collection of modern pictures and sculpture. He was not a prolific writer; his main contributions were his chapters on Art and Architecture in the 20th Century volume of the Revised Cambridge Modern History. His research energies went into his lectures, always delivered with two slide projectors to enable comparisons and contrasts. It is for these, and for the introduction of his students, and wider audiences, to the history and aesthetic enjoyment of the visual arts, that he is best remembered.
His wife, Ann, and their two daughters, survive him.
Source: www.bangor.ac.uk/alumni/Obituaries2011info.php