On June 1, The Rev. Telfer Mook '38 (shown above with his wife Jane) became India-Ceylon Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The American Board, located in Boston, is the overseas agency of the Congregational Christian Churches. Mook prepared for his new post by spending eighteen months in India and Ceylon. While in the Far East he devoted much of his time to a study of the social and economic conditions of those countries.
His work in the ministry began in 1950. In that year he gave up his legal practice and position with the firm of Parker, Mook and Mannheimer, attorneys, in Des Moines, lowa, to enter the Chicago Theological Seminary. After receiving his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1955, he became minister of the First Congregational Church of Concord, N. H. In 1957-58 he was chaplain of the New Hampshire legislature.
While an undergraduate at the College, Mook was active in many campus activities, including Zeta Psi fraternity and the varsity tennis team. He was also a Senior Fellow. Following graduation he -spent a year at Cambridge University and then returned to the United States to study law. In 1942 he received an LL.B. from Yale Law School. World War II found him in the Navy, where he received his first taste of missionary work. Assigned to the island of Tinian in the Maiianas, he was director of education for the military government. For his work with 3,000 youngsters on the island he was given a special citation.
The Mooks have two sons and two daughters, and are now residing in Auburndale, Mass.