Cocktails with KB | Terry Cooke
- Dev Team
- 18 Jan 2016
When I think of Hamilton, I immediately think of Terry Cooke. Here is a man who has lived in this city his entire life, is deeply passionate about it, and has a long history of serving Hamilton in a multitude of ways. As the CEO of the Hamilton Community Foundation, he is actively creating change in our city.
I had the privilege of spending some time with Terry at Two Black Sheep over cocktails, where we chatted about Hamilton’s past, present, and future. I always leave my time with Terry feeling inspired and excited about the city. Grab a cocktail and I guarantee you will feel the same way.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Hire people who are smarter than you are. That’s it.
What’s the best thing about what you do?
I get to do good things in my hometown, and I get to marry everything that I loved about community, business, and political leadership with virtually none of the headaches.
What’s the worst thing about what you do?
The challenge, always, when you’re dealing with hard issues like poverty and educational outcomes, is that you can never do enough. You can never make change fast enough, the issues are complicated and messy, and at the end of the day, you always feel like there is more work to do.
What are you most looking forward to in 2016?
We’re in the midst of rolling out the largest educational initiative targeted at middle school kids in the history of our foundation. Education is a passion of mine. I come from a family of educators: my little sister Alison is an elementary principal, my dad was a high school teacher, my grandmother was the chair of the board. I love making a difference in the lives of kids—especially kids who have particular challenges. I think we’re going to do something in Hamilton that is going to change the future.
What’s your favourite weather and what’s one of the best memories tied to that weather?
I love fall; I love the changing of seasons in Ontario. We’ve just sold my grampa’s cottage in Haliburton because he passed away in June ( just shy of 101 years old!), and our annual gathering of the extended family was always at his place on Thanksgiving. We would do the church basement Thanksgiving supper. Those are some of my best memories because all of the multiple generations of extended family were there. It was a special place for us and still is. Grampa started taking his family there when he returned from the Second World War, and continued there and at the house he lived in on Weir Street in East Hamilton until he passed away at the age of 101.
You have two full days off of work and all work obligations, and the sky is the limit. What are you going to do?
Well, I’m going to spend it with my kids. If it’s the winter we’re going to ski, and if it’s the summer we’re going to be riding our bikes in an interesting, historic town, probably somewhere in Western New York, with Civil War history and water and a great bike path and an interesting restaurant that we discovered.
If money were no object, what would you do all day?
What I do now. The trick in your career is to make a living doing something you love. I have been so lucky that in this career, I get up everyday, six years into this job, and I count on one hand the number of bad days that I’ve had, and I’ve never had that with any previous job. This job gives me meaning, I have an extraordinary team, we’re in the city in Canada that is changing in the most dramatic way of any mid-size city—where else would you want to be?
What’s your guilty pleasure?
I have two vices. They’re both food. One is local and the other is in New York. The best pies in the world are made on Ridge Road in Stoney Creek at Punch Bowl Market and Bakery. On Sundays, they make a raspberry cream pie that you would commit a homicide for. The other one is great pizza. My favourite pizza experience is Maureen and I walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to Dumbo, to Grimaldi’s to eat the greatest pizza in the world, on a checkered tablecloth, drinking cold draft beer.
What’s your dream for the foundation for the next five years?
We want to be relevant to creating the greatest mid-size city in the country. We want to move the dial in educational outcomes, especially for kids from lower income families. We want to contribute to a courageous civic voice around the changes we need to make. Things like light rail, complete streets, better neighbourhood schools, a renewed sense of optimism. The community foundation has always been ambitious in terms of setting high aspirations. I think we want to be one of the leading foundations in the country, and do what we do in a city that is increasingly prosperous, and that doesn’t leave people behind.
LIGHTNING ROUND
BEST GIFT YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?
It was at St. Joe’s. 9 pounds, 11 ounces, on September 28th, 2002. Lane O’Hara Cooke. I’ll never forget it.
FAVOURITE BAND?
I am the biggest Springsteen junkie of all time. He is America’s poet. I’ve seen him a bunch of times. Seeing him again in Buffalo. My only regret? In the times I’ve heard him here, he’s never played “My Hometown” because I would cry if I heard him sing it in my hometown. It just resonates.
FAVOURITE SOLO ARTIST?
Bob Marley. I’ve been a fan since I was in high school.
HIDDEN TALENT?
As my buddy Jeff Paikin says, I’m the only fat guy he knows that can run marathons. I like to think that might be an unexpected talent.
FIRST THING YOU DO WHEN YOU GET HOME?
Kiss my kids and my wife.
IF YOUR LIFE WERE A SONG, WHAT WOULD THE TITLE BE?
“My Hometown”
WINDOW OR AISLE?
It has to be aisle.
BEATLES OR STONES?
Beatles
BAGEL OR CROISSANT?
Bagel
FAVOURITE TV SHOW GROWING UP?
We didn’t watch that much TV as kids, but I’m going to say The Untouchables. Elliott Ness, Chicago, lots of violent crimes, lots of political corruption.
WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU LEARNED THIS WEEK?
That I’m better than the mayor at ping pong.
PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT?
Gotta be being a dad, trying to do the best I can.
#1 PLAYED SONG ON YOUR IPOD?
“Born to Run”
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