Steve L. Cooke

Steve Cooke was born in 1903 in Waterbury Connecticut. Surrounded by manufacturing and engineering he himself became an expert at engineering and designing HVAC and had great success in founding SL Cooke Company in the Branford area. Humble beginnings had him converting blocks of wood into grand sailing vessels at an early age. With each passing year he refined his skills on both full hulls and half hulls and always kept track of the hours into each model and its scale. He frequently drew a "blue print" and never ever used anything that he didn't craft from scratch.

An accomplished sailor, Steve's pride and joy on the water was the exquisite yawl the Gay Maid. When not sailing on the Sound, he and his beloved wife Betty would load up the two cats "Port and Starboard" and modeling supplies and retreat to their house boat in Florida for the Winter. There was always fine blocks of perfectly carved wood and fresh drawings lying about. Models were his "canvas," until his passing in 1983.