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Jack Cooke
Page 74
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JACK Cooke, engineering director of ERF Ltd, drives a Marcos car — which marks him at least as an individualist. The fact that he also likes to work on it, as he says "looking for ways to improve it", picks him out as an engineering director who likes to get his hands dirty.
Speaking to Jack Cooke one gets the ' immediate impression that here is both a theoretical and eminently practical engineer, which is an increasingly rare combination of talents these days.
It has been said of him that he looks at trucks from the point of view of • those who have to operate and service them.
During his career, which started as an apprentice with Leyland Motors Ltd, . he has always served at companies with a reputation for practical engineering and it shows in his own work.
Following his apprenticeship he joined the RAF in 1940 as a flight engineer, was invalided out in 1943 and sent to the Maudslay Motor Co Ltd as an AID inspector.
After the war he stayed on with the company until late in 1948 when he left to return to Leyland. In 1956 after another spell with Me udslay he joined Atkinson Vehicles Ltd as senior designer staying until 1971 when he joined ERF as assistant chief engineer.
In the present climate of increasing legislation covering the construction and use of road vehicles Jack Cooke sees a challenge for the vehicle designer. But he also believes that the bureaucrats should content themselves with framing the basic rules.
He likes to stay close to the job and keep his finger on things, which is easy in a company the size of ERF and hesays "the bigger the company the more divorced from the shop floor designers become."
The latest result of his engineering experience is the new range of ERF chassis introduced this week, for which Jack and his design team have taken the best • features of the "A" series and married them to a new tilt cab of fairly novel construction.
Married, with a son at Bristol University, Jack Cooke has hobbies, which apart from the Marcos, include Hi-Fi and "a little gardening". G.M.