Joan Riddell Cook
Joan Riddell Cook was an American journalist, editor and trade unionist who a founding director of the Journalism and Women Symposium.
Early life
Cook was born on January 5, 1922, in Portland, Oregon. He was a 1939 graduate of Marlborough School, a all-girls day and boarding school in Los Angeles.Career
Cook started her career at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She later left and started working at the New York Herald Tribune. Cook later worked for two years as women's editor at The Detroit News.Cook started working for The New York Times in 1959, where she worked until her retirement in 1991. She was one of seven named plaintiffs in a successful class action Title VII sex discrimination lawsuit against the Times that was filed in 1974. Cook served as head of the Times unit of the New York City Newspaper Guild labor union and was only the second woman ever elected to the post.
Cook also served as president of the Silurians, which is the oldest press club in New York.
Cook first joined JAWS in 1989 and became a member of the first board of directors.