Kenneth E. Crook, Newsday editorial cartoonist in the 1960s, dies at 96

Drawing editorial cartoons for Newsday in the tumultuous 1960s put Kenneth E. Crook on the front lines of that decade's political and cultural wars.

His son Keith remembers his family receiving death threats because of his father's work. People who said they belonged to the right-wing John Birch Society "would call and threaten us," he said, and his mother found a letter in the family mailbox that read, "Better dead than red."

"My father was not the most liberal person in the world," Keith Crook, of Stamford, Connecticut, said in a phone interview Wednesday. "But he was opposed to the Vietnam War and he was pro-civil rights, and that put him on one side of the political divide in America."

Kenneth Crook, who drew cartoons for Newsday for more than a decade before leaving in 1970 to pursue a freelance art career, died Sunday at a hospital near his home in Green Valley, Arizona, his family said. He was 96.

A sampling of Crook's cartoons from the Newsday archives shows he tackled some of the hottest button topics of the time, including the Cold War, Cuba and Fidel Castro, Vietnam and the civil rights movement.

A cartoon published April 9, 1968, marking the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and titled "Unfinished Business," shows a wreath encircling the U.S. Capitol dome, which is emblazoned with the words "open housing," "job programs" and "equal opportunity."

Another April 1968 image, captioned "This is a heck of a way to run a railroad," shows a train marked "NYS government" running off the rails, which are labeled "budget."

Stone and bronze sculptures

After leaving Newsday, Crook made stone and bronze sculptures and taught art classes, his family said. They said his bronze bust of Mark Twain is displayed at the author's official library in Redding, Connecticut.

Crook moved to Arizona in 1990. His sculpture, "Hopi Maiden at the Well," is in the collection of the Tucson Desert Art Museum, his family said.

But possibly his most-viewed work is one he received little credit for, Keith Crook said.

Before working at Newsday, his father painted background murals for diorama displays at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, he said.

"Everybody has seen his work who has gone to the museum," he said.

Kenneth E. Crook was born in 1929 near upstate Jamesport, his son said. The family moved to Long Island when he was a teenager.

Crook graduated from Freeport High School and later obtained a degree from the former New York Phoenix School of Design.

Newsday hired him in the 1950s to work in its advertising and design department, his family said. He was promoted in 1959 by Newsday founders Alicia Patterson and Harry F. Guggenheim to be the paper's editorial cartoonist.

His son said Crook also made his mark as a slugger for the paper's softball team who once managed to make three outs even after swatting what should have been an easy grand slam.

"There was a story about a guy who hit a home run that turned into a triple play," Keith Crook said. "My father was the guy who hit the ball. All three runners on base got tagged [out]."

Crook was predeceased by his parents, Walter Crook and Dorothy Davis Crook, and his brother, Jay R. Crook. He is survived by his wife, Eve DeWitt Crook of Green Valley, Arizona; a daughter, Kathy Crook Gaudette of Phoenix; two sons, Keith Crook and K. Eric Crook of East Providence, Rhode Island; a stepson, Randy Juster of Sacramento, California; five grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.

Crook's body was cremated. The family is planning a spring memorial service, Keith Crook said.