Roy Lee Cooke

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Roy Lee Cooke (born December 25, 1941) is an American who was a founding member of the Big Creek Missile Agency and one of the original Rocket Boys. His character in the Universal Pictures film “October Sky” was played by William Lee Scott.

He is the son of Wiley Clay Cooke and Carrie Austin Cooke of Coalwood, in McDowell County, West Virginia.

When Cooke was 13, his father died at the age of 45, after working his entire adult life in the Coalwood mine. His mother then began working in the school cafeteria to support the two of them.

Cooke later attended Big Creek High School. It was there that Cooke and his friends Jimmy "O'Dell" Carroll, Homer Hickam, Jr., Billy Rose, Sherman Siers and Quentin Wilson formed the Big Creek Missile Agency. Cooke was a member of the football team, too, playing running back. In addition, he was active in a variety of clubs in high school. The thespian club named him best thespian during his senior year at BCHS.

After graduating high school, Cooke began his college career at Concord College in Athens, West Virginia. He later transferred to the University of Maryland where he earned a degree. He is also a graduate of the American Institute of Banking in Washington, D.C.

Now retired from banking after 25 years in that profession, Cooke has been President of Carolina Domestic Coal since 1986. He is an owner of Cooke & Moses LLC, a company devoted to bringing new businesses and venture capital into West Virginia. His company, The Red Shield LLC is the Master Developer of the City of Fairmont, WV.

He maintains a wide range of civic and business interests in the Appalachian area, including support of the West Virginia Access Center for Higher Education. Additionally, he has New Horizons Computer Learning Centers in West Virginia, South Carolina and California, and started the Prodigy Foundation to support education and jobs in West Virginia. Each year, The Prodigy Foundation awards an outstanding teacher that has overcome great obstacles to be in that profession, The West Virginia School Teacher of the Year, in memory of Frieda Riley, his high school science teacher.

He started the History & Culture Institute of Mining in 2007, and besides the museum, is seeking to establish a National Miner's Day. In 2008, he was appointed to the Board of the Mission West Virginia Foundation.

Cooke has appeared at several colleges and other organizations throughout the country. He has presented keynote speeches at the West Virginia Small Business Administration and the Appalachian College Association. He also regularly speaks at schools and libraries nation wide.

Governor Underwood named him a Distinguished West Virginian in 1999, and in 2002, the Secretary of State appointed him a Member of the 35th Star.

Cooke resides in Irmo, South Carolina. However, he divides his time between West Virginia and South Carolina.