Cooke installed as TPA president

Ken Esten Cooke, owner of The Rockdale Reporter and publisher of the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post, was installed as president of the Texas Press Association during the organization’s 144th Convention and Trade Show held at the Kalahari Resort in Round Rock.

Cooke was presented the gavel by outgoing president Leonard Woolsey, president of Southern Newspapers Inc. and publisher of the Galveston County Daily News,

and eight other past presidents of the organization who were present at the convention.

Cooke has roots in the organization as his great grandfather, John Esten Cooke, served as the TPA president in the 1920-1921 term. J.E. Cooke also helped the organization come up with its Code of Ethics and served on numerous committees. He worked at newspapers in Denton and San Angelo and purchased the Clarendon Banner-Stockman in 1899, established the Brady Standard 10 years later, and purchased The Rockdale Reporter and Messenger in 1911.

Cooke’s grandfather, W.H. Cooke, and his father, J.W. “Bill” Cooke, were subsequent publishers of the Rockdale newspaper and were active with the organization, supporting it throughout their publishing careers. Ken Esten Cooke worked at his family paper for 15 years before taking the helm at the Fredericksburg paper in 2012.

“It’s an honor to serve this organization, whose events I have attended since I was a child,” Cooke said. “It’s also humbling to follow both my family predecessors and those here in Fredericksburg in Art Kowert and Terry Collier.”

The three-day meeting gathered representatives from newspapers throughout the state. Cooke’s parents, Bill and Peggy Cooke, and his brother Kyle Cooke, editor of The Rockdale Reporter, were also present.

The Standard-Radio Post also was named the state’s top large weekly publication, walking away with sweepstakes honors.

Texas Press Association, established in 1880, serves as the voice of the state’s newspaper industry, representing papers ranging from Texas’s largest metropolitan news organizations to its smallest weekly papers. The association promotes the welfare of Texas newspapers, encourages the highest standards of journalism, and plays an important role in protecting the public’s right to know as an advocate of First Amendment liberties.