Posted on Friday, May 27, 2022
Austin Cook III ’69, who retired as campus postmaster in 2010, said he would not be here today without Justin Long, the helicopter medic who kept him alive after a motorcycle accident one year ago on May 23 in Franklin.
The pair reconnected this year at an Easter service on Sunday, April 17, at First United Methodist Church in LaGrange. Long worked on Cook during the helicopter flight to Atlanta Medical Center.
“We had an emotional moment,” Cook said. “Justin said very rarely do we get any kind of follow up on patients that we treat and deliver to these emergency centers,” he said.
On the day of the accident, Cook said he and his brother Dan were taking a Sunday afternoon ride on a backroad in Heard County. When making a turn, Austin said his brother noticed a driver coming around the curve at a high rate of speed.
“I don’t remember seeing it coming,” Austin said. “I remember hearing my brother shout ‘watch out.’”
And he remembers the impact from the collision.
“The accident took off my left arm just above the elbow,” Austin said. After combatting a range of other injuries and a total of four months at Atlanta Medical Center and the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, he believes he is lucky to be alive.
“I should have been killed,” he said. “You take a 73-year-old getting knocked off by a drunk driver speeding at 80 miles per hour, chances of survival are not high.”
On March 23, 2022, Austin appeared at the trial of the man who nearly killed him. The driver was sentenced to 15 years at a state penitentiary.
Since the accident, Austin said he continues to make progress in his recovery.
“I have been walking,” he said. “I have a quad cane that I use right now.”
Austin said he exceeded the expectations of people who thought he was going to live the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He has been doing physical therapy at Southern Rehab and Sports Medicine in LaGrange.
“I was determined I was going to walk again,” he said. “I’ve been trying to push myself to the extent that I can.”
As a result of the accident, Austin said he struggles with exerting energy.
“I was told by a pulmonary specialist that when I am exerting my lungs are only putting out 32 percent of what they should be doing,” Austin said. “I am waiting to do pulmonary therapy.”
After the accident, Austin said he was unable to continue his passion of playing the organ. An organist for a presbyterian church in West Point for 17 years, he hopes to adapt music that he can play on one hand instead of two.
Life at LaGrange College
Austin’s family ties to LaGrange College can be traced back to 1909, the graduation year of his father’s mother, Carrie Moore Fleeth. Other graduates in his family include mother Eleanor Brown Cook ’42, aunt Florrie Bryan Irwin ’48 and brother Dan Cook ’73.
Austin Cook III moved to LaGrange when his father, Austin Cook Jr., took a job as a business manager and controller at the college in 1950.
“My dad grew up at 505 Broad Street,” Cook said.
Cook Jr. was hired by Former LaGrange College President Dr. Waights Henry Jr.
“He provided Dr. Henry Jr. with whatever financial information he needed,” Cook said. “He and dad worked very well together.”
Cook Jr. retired from the college in 1982, a year after his son began working as the campus postmaster. Cook said his father offered him the position.
“I remember my dad told me the job is yours if you want it,” Cook III said. “Twenty-nine and a half years later, I retired.”
The post office was the hub on campus, according to Cook III.
“Anybody on campus that you wanted to see would be through here every day to check the mail,” Cook III said. “I made a lot of friends with the faculty, staff and students.”
Cook III said he made it a priority to know every person who would come through the college’s post office. He said he would memorize the box numbers of every student on campus. “It showed them that they were not just a number here,” Cook III said.
Post-retirement life
After retiring from the college in 2010, Cook III traveled throughout the Georgia countryside with his brother. Some of their destinations included Anna Ruby Falls and Brasstown Bald.
A fan of Corvettes, he toured the National Corvette Museum in 2011. He has a 1965 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible and a 2012 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe.
“The Corvettes are a hobby as well as a mode of transportation,” Cook III said.
After both parents passed away in 2010, Cook III said it has just been him and his brother Dan. Cook III said he has immense gratitude for his brother: “He’s done more than the extra mile in looking after me since I got out of Shepherd.”
Campus Notes
Video of the Week
Inside LaGrange
Take a fast-paced, less-than-five-minute look at all the fun events that made Inauguration Week '22 so memorable.
Sports
Baseball
June Faculty and Staff Birthdays
2-Felecia Moore, Lewis Library
5-William Yin, Mathematics
7-Ivy Grant, Athletic Programs
9-James Blackwood, Information Technology
11-Caleb Eppling, Admission Office
14-Arielle Butler, Campus Post Office
16-Justin Thurman, English
20-Yson DeBlois, Film and Media Arts
24-Christi Hu, Psychological Science
25-Nicole Joseph, Cheerleading
28-Laine Scott, English
In the Headlines
Category: College
Keywords: Baseball, Austin Cook
