George Cook, OMG, George F'ing Cook, whattttt!
Caption: Elder George Cook (right), one of the nine elders of the small 90-person congregation, said Prince regularly ‘witnessed’ alone in the community and in groups
George Cook was DO in our District over two decades ago. He was very detail oriented and very eccentric. He was very controlling and very devoted to Momma WT. It's interesting he still does his hair in a "overlapping" comb-over fashion and wears 1990's eyeglass frames.
His real family name is Greek. But they shortened it to Cook. This once powerful District Overseer must have been put to retirement as with other DO's. The article says he's 81 years old. He wielded a lot of power and expected total allegiance. It is interesting to see how the mighty have fallen. He was once in charge of the Caribbean, traveling the islands and having a grand ol' time. Now he just looks like any little old man in a suit a bit too big for him.
Did you ever get to meet George Cook?
(I want to thank forum member ToesUp for bringing our attention in his posthttp://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5170508077203456/if-prince-had-addiction-prescriptions-drugs-personal-matter-but-if-want-grow-beard-attend-college?page=1#/6302132571471872
about an article in the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3555735/Inside-Prince-s-Jehovah-s-Witness-Church-singer-went-door-door-Bible-hand-large-cash-donations-years.htmlin which these photos appear.I know there are quite a lot of posts about Prince, and I didn't want to fork this information needlessly, yet I feel I may have been hijacking his post since I was commenting on George Cook and the KH itself).
From that article in the Daily Mail here's the KH of the Congregation Prince belonged to:
Caption: Prince, who officially converted to the religion in 2003, is associated with the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall, Saint Louis Park congregation in Minneapolis
The photo of the inside made me notice some interesting details.
Caption: The singer attended a 50-minute ceremony at the church (pictured) on March 23 to commemorate the death of Jesus – an event celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the world
It's an old KH style, that was common back in the 80's. The side windows and the ugly light fixtures are from that style, and not the more modern RBC's window-less walls with parabolic light fixtures.
Also the chrome legged chairs are what most KH used three decades ago, and in what hideous colors. Around here in New England the RBC changed over to a similar yet wider steel frame construction, painted and not chromed, and also a little bit wider and more plush by a half an inch on the seat.
They're obviously meeting for going out in service and the projection screen is down ??? I thought they were moving away from projectors and screens, there seems to be a large screen tv at the right hand side of the photo.
If as the article points out Prince gave "gifts of mercy", in considerable amounts of the monetary sort, then that dough wasn't making it to the local congregation's remodeling of the KH. It seems Momma WT must have been the recipient instead.