Wesley W. Cook was born August 16, 1902, the son of a Midwestern Methodist minister. After study at Northwestern University and in Germany, Cook, within a dissertation's length of a doctorate in philosophy, became involved in socialist and labor causes in Philadelphia. He was one of the first organizers hired by the Textile Workers Organizing Committee (TWOC). His entire career with the Textile Workers Union (TWUA) was spent in the Synthetic Division - as organizer, as Assistant Division Director, and as Division Director. He became Director of the Synthetic Division in 1952, was elected to the TWUA Executive Council that same year, and was named Director of the Upper South Region the following year. In the early 1960s he was one of the leaders of an internal split in the Union, which found a majority of the Executive Council members opposing the administration. In 1964 he ran for the office of Secretary-Treasurer, lost, was fired from his position as Synthetic Director, and left the Union.
