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Rocket Boy Roy Lee Cooke was born on Christmas Day, 1941 in Coalwood, McDowell county, West Virginia, to Carrie Austin and Wiley Clay Cooke. His father worked all his adult life in the coal mine at Coalwood, and died at age 45, when Roy Lee was only 13. His mother went to work in the school cafeteria to support the two of them.
Roy Lee was a founding member of the Big Creek Missile Agency and was to become one of the original Rocket Boys. He was a running back on the Big Creek High School football teams in junior and senior high schools. He was active in a variety of clubs in high school and was named best thespian in his senior year.
He began his college career at Concord College in Athens, West Virginia and finished at the University of Maryland. He is also a graduate of the American Institute of Banking in Washington, D.C.
He retired from banking after 25 years and has been President of Carolina Domestic Coal for the past 14 years. He and his wife Betty live in Irmo, South Carolina, and have four children and six grand children.
Roy Lee maintains a wide range of civic and business interests in the Appalachian area, including support of the West Virginia Access Center for Higher Education (WVACHE) which is endorsed by all the Rocket Boys. He was keynote speaker at the WV Small Business Administration and the Appalachian College Association. He has also spoken at several colleges and other organizations throughout the region and is available for speaking engagements.
You can send an email to Roy Lee by writing: rcooke8184@aol.com
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Coalwood, WV - The Rocket Boys - Roy Lee Cooke