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

Gayle Cook, the Indiana philanthropist, preservationist and billionaire businesswoman who founded the Cook companies with her late husband, has died.

She was 91 years old.

According to a statement from Cook Medical, Cook died Sunday morning.

“Gayle’s spirit of innovation was evident in everything she did. Whatever she was involved in, she left it better than she found it,” Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Medical and Cook Group, said.

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 it remains headquartered in Bloomington.

Carl Cook, the couple’s son, has been the CEO of Cook Group since Bill died in 2011. He’ll remain in that position, according to Cook. Steve Ferguson is the board chairman.

Gayle was a passionate advocate for historic preservation. She and Bill spent more than $500 million restoring the historic West Baden Springs and French Lick resorts.

“We are deeply saddened by Gayle Cook’s passing. She was an enthusiastic and generous advocate for preservation,” Indiana Landmarks president Brad Ward wrote in a statement. “Beyond the sheer number of properties they’ve restored around the state, Gayle and her family have elevated preservation in a very public way as both a social good and a practical economic activity.”

Ward listed several well-known structures that Cook's advocacy helped save, including Bloomington's iconic courthouse.

“We will miss Gayle’s warm friendship, but we take comfort knowing that her legacy will live on for generations to enjoy,” he wrote.

In 1989, Gayle was the victim of a widely reported kidnapping and failed $1.7 million ransom attempt. A man named Arthur Curry bound and gagged her and drove her around Bloomington for 26 hours. 

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

George Hale contributed to this report.

This story has been updated.