Paul M. Cook

Paul M. Cook (April 25, 1924 – December 14, 2020) was an American businessman who was the founder and CEO of Raychem, a chemical manufacturing company that reached $2 billion in annual revenue. In 1988, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology "or his vision and entrepreneurial efforts, his technical accomplishments and his business and technical leadership as the key contributor in creating a worldwide chemically based industry."

Early life and education Paul Cook took an early interest in chemistry, and developed a chemistry lab in the basement of his parents' home. After he graduated high school in 1941, he started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), studying chemical engineering under Warren K. Lewis.

Awards and memberships Cook served on SRI International's board of directors for nine years and served as its chairman for six of those.

In 1986, he was awarded the Winthrop-Sears Medal from the Chemical Industry Association. In 1988, Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Technology.

He received the Bay Area Council's Bay Area Business Hall of Fame Award in 1999, and SRI's Weldon B. "Hoot" Gibson Achievement Award in 2008.