Preston Cook

Preston Cook (born 1946) is an American collector and commercial real estate investor. He created the Preston Cook National Eagle Collection comprising more than 40,000 objects featuring eagle imagery. Cook is credited with helping designate the bald eagle as the official national bird of the United States through the National Bird Initiative. Cook has published three books on the eagle.

Early life and education Cook was raised in Evanston, Illinois, and graduated from high school in 1964. He attended Kendall College and Lone Mountain College in San Francisco. He began collecting eagle-related objects in the 1968.

National Bird Initiative While researching his book American Eagle: A Visual History of Our National Emblem, Cook discovered that the bald eagle, despite its longstanding symbolic role, had never been officially designated as the national bird. Cook drafted a bill to designate the bald eagle as the national bird.

Personal life In 1986, Cook married Donna Cook who had five children from a previous marriage.