“Woody” McCook & the McCook-Crain Building
One of the multi-purpose buildings that moved around a lot before it was eventually demolished
Charles Woodruff McCook, informally known as Woody, was a Southwestern graduate and the son of the respected Southwestern Business Manager I. J. McCook. Woody graduated from Southwestern in 1941 and immediately joined the Army Air Corps in 1942. That same year, Woody was assigned to China where he met his untimely death when he went missing during a bombing flight over Burma. While he was not the first Southwestern alumni to die in World War II related combat, his death had an impact on many Southwestern faculty and students. It was impactful because his father was employed by the University at the time of his son’s death.
When former President King Vivion heard of Woody’s death, in honor of the McCook family, he and his wife donated their equity towards an on-campus infirmary which would be named McCook infirmary. A few years later the McCook infirmary was “no longer suitable” for the physical changes the Southwestern was undergoing. A new infirmary was constructed in 1953 when Edward L. Crain, alumni and long-time trustee, bequeathed $25,000 to Southwestern to preserve his legacy on campus. This new infirmary adopted the Crain name while preserving the McCook legacy, combining the two for the McCook-Crain building.
The McCook-Crain Building itself has moved around a bit. It was first located just Northeast of LK Hall, where there is now a parking lot. Since the 2010s, it has been located on the far East side of campus, just behind the Turner-Fleming President’s House. The last tenants of the building were the Upward Bound Program, a community outreach organization focused on college-readiness for local Georgetown first-generation students.
There are plans for the demolition of the McCook-Crain building as part of the current Facilities Master Plan. After this building is gone, the McCook family legacy may not have a physical place of memorialization on campus, as nowhere else carries that namesake.
