McGill Libraries
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Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Cooke, R. P. (Richard Plunkett), 1824-1892
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1824-1892
History
Richard Plunkett Cooke was born on October 12, 1824, in Parsonstown, Ireland.
He studied engineering at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1852, he came to Canada and obtained a position as assistant engineer on the Toronto and Guelph Railway that subsequently became part of the Grand Trunk Railway. Cooke became a divisional engineer in charge of the line west of Toronto. In 1858, he was transferred to the central division and had charge of the Grand Trunk line between Montreal and Toronto. In 1861, he became General Manager of the Brockville and Ottawa Railway. About 1869, he participated in the successful completion of the Boston, Barre & Gardner Railroad in Massachusetts. He spent the last three years of his life working on many important projects in Vancouver, B.C. He served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Columbia and President of St. Patrick's Society in Vancouver. In 1888, he was elected a member of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers.
In 1853, he married Anna Maria Plunkett (1827-1893). He died on January 27, 1892, in Vancouver, British Columbia.