Willoughby Ranch - Brossura

The author, Roger Cooke, was born and raised on Galveston Island, off the Gulf Coast of Texas. While locally he practically lived on the water, at age ten, he visited for several weeks a family friends' farm in Uvalde, and fell in love with the clean, dry air and the fresh, clear well water of the Edwards Aquifer. During his high school years, he also visited, and occasionally worked on a 35,000 acre ranch belonging to another family friend, around Kerr and Kimble counties. This experience enhanced his fascination with the Texas Hill Country, and ranching life. World War II interrupted his freshman year at the University of Texas, and led to his training as an aircraft pilot and a year long stint in Europe flying C47's, towing gliders, and carrying paratroopers into Germany. This, in turn, led to his flying private planes in his subsequent manufacturing career. Although having no formal training in journalism, Mr. Cooke was not the first in his family to publish literature. Following his father, Dr. Willard R. Cooke, his great grandfather, Willard Richardson, and another ancestor, John Esten Cooke, as well as several back at least to the American Revolution, Mr. Cooke, wrote, but never published, a number of lengthy reports and instruction manuals in his manufacturing career.