Helen Bruce Cooke

Helen Bruce Cooke, passed away peacefully on January 27th, 2024, surrounded by family and friends. Helen was born on October 6th, 1938, in Toledo, Ohio to Archibald Hamilton Bruce and Williamina Anderson Ferns Bruce. She was the second of three children, supported by an extended family of Scottish immigrants and a community of friends.

Growing up in Toledo, Helen attended DeVilbiss High School where she was actively involved in student government and was president of Pay-a-el-sa, a service club which helped people in need at the school and in the community. After graduation, instead of settling down and starting a family as was the norm for many young women, Helen went to college at Toledo University where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi. She earned her degree in elementary education in 1960. After graduation, Helen and 3 of her sorority friends, nicknamed the Fearsome Foursome, moved across the country to San Diego, CA where she began her first teaching job. Her career in education took her from California to Germany, and eventually to Jacksonville, Florida.

It’s in Jacksonville that Helen met the funny and determined Phil Cooke, who became the love of her life. They were married June 24th, 1967, and had two children Allison, and Bruce. They settled in Ortega Forest around the corner from John N.C. Stockton Elementary School.

Helen Cooke began her career in Jacksonville, FL at Oak Hill Elementary where she taught for a few years. Then she took some time off to raise her family. She returned to teaching at Stockton Elementary where she taught for 23 years and was revered as a kind educator who truly connected with her students. She started at the school as a substitute teacher and volunteered for the PTA until she was offered a full-time teaching position. Her previous students always greeted her out in the community, even decades after they left Stockton. She was the teacher who inspired kids to love learning and they loved her in return.

Her daughter Allison has followed in her mother’s footsteps, and also became a teacher at Stockton Elementary. She began teaching at Stockton the same year Helen retired. Even after retiring, Helen continued to volunteer for 13 more years at the school in her daughter’s class.

When she wasn’t teaching, Helen enjoyed caring for and being involved with her family, and spending time at the lake house that she and Phil built near Melrose, Florida. She loved going to the symphony and the artist series, volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House of Jacksonville, singing and doing puzzles with her sister, traveling, and learning new things with her endless curiosity.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents and her older brother, John Bruce. She is survived by her husband Phil, her children Allison and Bruce, her grandchildren Mina and James, and her younger sister Martha Kupsky.

A Celebration of Life in honor of Helen will be held Saturday, March 2, 2024, 11:00 am at John N.C. Stockton Elementary, 4827 Carlisle Road, Jacksonville, FL 32210. There will be a reception immediately following in the cafeteria at Stockton.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Ronald McDonald House of Jacksonville.