Noel Speir Cook, a retired attorney and former Maryland legislator, died Monday of kidney failure at Vantage House retirement community in
   Columbia, where he had lived since 1996. He was 95.

   Mr. Cook, an Allegany County Republican, was elected to the House of Delegates in 1947 and served under five governors -- William Preston
   Lane, J. Millard Tawes, Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, Spiro T. Agnew and Marvin Mandel.

   For years, he was a member of the Judiciary Committee.

   In 1969, he was appointed by Governor Agnew to fill a state Senate vacancy. He retired in 1970.

   Mr. Cook had served as town attorney for Lonaconing and Frostburg, and had a general law practice in Cumberland from which he also retired in
   1970.

   After retiring, the longtime Frostburg resident moved to Sun City, Ariz., then to Annapolis in 1985.

   The Frostburg native earned a bachelor's degree from what is now Frostburg State University in 1924 and a law degree from the University of
   Maryland in 1930.

   He was a past president of the Allegany County Bar Association and a member of the Maryland Bar Association.

   He was a 32nd-degree Mason and belonged to several civic groups, including the Elks and the Ali Gahn Shriners of Cumberland.

   He was a former member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Frostburg.

   In 1935, he married Anna Ruddle, who survives him.

   "He enjoyed sipping martinis, playing gin rummy and reading," his wife said.

   Services were held yesterday.

   Mr. Cook also is survived by several nephews and nieces.

 
Copyright 2001 The Baltimore Sun Company