Billionaire Gayle Cook, co-founder of Cook companies, dies at 91

This story will be updated.

Billionaire Gayle Cook, who founded the Cook companies with her late husband, has died. She was 91 years old.

According to a press release from Cook Medical, Cook died Sunday morning.

Gayle and her husband Bill started their medical device business in a spare bedroom of their Bloomington apartment in the 1960s.

Cook Medical is now a global company but remains headquartered in Bloomington.

Since the late 1980s, the Cooks have been on the Forbes Magazine list of the richest people in America.

Gayle was involved in historic preservation. She and Bill spent more than $500 million restoring the historic West Baden Springs and French Lick resorts.

In 1989, Gayle was kidnapped in a failed $1.7 million ransom attempt. Arthur Curry bound and gagged her and drove her around Bloomington for 26 hours. 

Carl Cook, the couple’s son, has been the CEO of Cook Group since Bill died in 2011. He’ll remain in that position. The company continues to be led by Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Group and Cook Medical. Steve Ferguson is the board chairman.