The long-time chairman of Monroe County’s Conservative Party has died.
Tom Cook reportedly passed away Sunday night due to complications from diabetes.
Cook led the Monroe County Conservatives since 1979, and was one of the most influential of the local party chairs, able to affect elections by his granting or withholding of the Conservative endorsement to other party’s candidates.
Cook was born in Rochester, served as a Marine in the Vietnam War and was a graduate of Syracuse University Law School. He’d been a lawyer in New York State since 1974.