Friends and family reflect on the life of a Cougar Crew athlete
Cristy Cay Cook wanted to become a veterinarian.
She had earned her pilot’s license at 17, and enjoyed cooking, playing piano, and listening to Heart songs such as “Crazy on You.” She was close with her parents, Darwin (’60 Elec. Eng.) and Sherry. And she had just joined Cougar Crew with her younger sister, Tammy. Cristy, a pre-med student, had a car on campus and volunteered to drive fellow crew members to and from practice on the Snake River.
On Wednesday, November 7, 1979, in dense fog, she missed a turn at a T-section, crashing into an embankment. The four female crew members riding in her car all recovered. Cristy didn’t make it.
At the 2024 Cougar Crew Days, 45 years after the car accident that claimed her life, Cristy was remembered during a wreath-laying ceremony on the Snake River. Former and current crew members rowed to the middle of the river on the morning of March 16, placing single white carnations on the surface along with a floating flower wreath.
At the crew’s annual fundraising gala at Beasley Coliseum later that night, Cougar Crew alum Alan “Mike” Klier (’75 Physics), called for a moment of silence in Cristy’s memory, sharing a video on the big screen of that morning’s memorial as well as photographs from Cristy’s life. He organized the day’s remembrances.
The crew remembers Cristy in other ways, too. Within a year of her death, the Cook family donated an eight-person cedar Pocock Racing Shell in Cristy’s honor. The crew also set up the Cristy Cay Cook Memorial Fund for operational expenses.
Here, Klier, the Cooks, and others reflect on that fateful fall day in 1979, the life of Cougar Crew athlete cut short, and her lasting legacy.
Cristy Cay Cook memorial article in the 1980 WSU Chinook yearbook (click for larger size)
‘An endearing presence’
Tim Richards
Men’s crew commodore Tim Richards found out the day it happened. Teammate, neighbor, and women’s crew commodore Kathleen Randall (’81 Comm.) came over and “told me that Christy was gone, and I didn’t understand what she had said,” Richards recalls. “I said, ‘Where did she go? Why did she leave?’ She said, ‘No, she’s gone. She’s dead.’”
Richards had bonded quickly with Cristy over their shared dream. “Cristy was studying to be a veterinarian, and that’s what she and I had in common. That’s what linked us together, started our friendship,” says Richards (’84 DVM), a Hawaii state senator and the founding chair of the Cougar Crew Alumni Association. He spoke during the wreath-laying ceremony on the water. Earlier that morning, he visited the crash site.
“Cristy loved the crew so much, so quickly,” he says. “She wasn’t on the team for a long time, but she was my friend.”
Her death “rattled the foundation of Cougar Crew. It was really hard for the crew. We kept training, but there was a dark cloud over everybody.”
He remembers there was a workout room for the women’s team. Shortly after Cristy died, “someone went in there and wrote a poem on the blackboard and left it for the team.” It was simply signed, “The Poet.” Says Richards, “No one knew who wrote it.”
The poem read: “When, because of fate, one can no longer can participate, we as individuals and as a team must dig deeper, try harder, and give that last ounce, the final push, for those who are sidelined.”
Teammate Kerin McKellar (’85 Home Econ.) put the poem on a piece of paper, shellacked it onto a piece of wood, and gave the plaque to Richards. “I’ve always kept it. To this day, it sits in my office,” Richards says. “That plaque for me has been one of my inspirations. The way I interpret it is: ‘Never give up.’”
The poem has become his personal motto and mantra.
“It’s been 45 years, and it’s still hard,” he says. “I think about Cristy all the time—the impact that she left on Cougar Crew and, really, the whole Cook family. Though she wasn’t really part of Cougar Crew for a long time, she did leave an endearing presence on the team. She and her parents and her sister have touched thousands of lives, and they are still doing so today. To this day, we are still talking about Cristy Cook. You have the ripples that are generational.”
‘Dedicated to her dream’
Deb Knight
The wreath-laying memorial marked the first time in 42 years that Deb (Julian) Knight (’82 Wildlife Biol.) was back in Pullman, back on campus, back on the Snake River.
“I was hesitant,” she says. But, once back “on the water, I was looking for that glide feeling. And we had a couple of glide strokes. I’m really pleased that I got that. That makes me remember what it was like when we rowed.”
She usually rode to and from practice with Cristy and Tammy. “I loved their accent. They were from Texas,” she recalls. “They totally looked out for each other. They were inseparable. Cristy was a lightweight, so I didn’t row in her boat. It was mostly up and back, to and from school.”
Knight remembers Cristy “as being very dedicated to her dream of becoming a veterinarian. I was impressed. I didn’t end up having the grades. I ended up being a zookeeper.”
She retired last fall and now enjoys spending more time with her grandchildren.
The morning of the accident, Knight was riding in Cristy’s car.
“I was sitting up front, talking to her, when it happened,” she says. “I was looking at her. It was so foggy. All of a sudden, the fog disappeared, and we knew where we were. We were at the T. Then, I don’t remember. I didn’t know (what happened to Cristy) until I was up in Spokane and my parents told me. I remember the Cooks coming to see me. That was probably the hardest thing because I survived and Cristy didn’t and I felt so guilty.”
‘A hard year’
Gene Dowers
Gene Dowers (’86 Phys. Ed.) became a PAC-10 head coach a month after he turned 21. “I had lots of enthusiasm and lots of ideas,” he says, noting, “In Cougar Crew, there’s a certain toughness.”
Dowers was in his second year at WSU when the accident happened. Cristy was leading a caravan of cars. Her sister was in the car behind her, and Dowers was in the car behind Tammy.
“That morning, it was foggy. And the fog was incredibly thick,” he remembers. “Everybody was injured. All were in shock.”
When he arrived on the scene, the car battery was sparking. “The first thing I did was unhook the battery,” he says. Then he helped the women in the backseat out of the vehicle.
Crew members, he says, “were prepping for a race, for the Green Lake Regatta.” After the accident, they continued training.
“You can’t go back to normal. That would dishonor her. But you have to imagine what she would have wanted done. We didn’t take days off. We grieved. But we didn’t stop. We wanted to keep doing what she loved,” Dowers says.
Cristy was just one year younger than him. But, he says, “she had this maturity. What I remember about her was her work ethic and her joy and the way she loved her friends. She was a person who stepped up, and she was fierce. She understood that she was there to get in shape and to make the boat go faster.”
Dowers went on to serve as head women’s rowing coach for six years in all, then held the same position at Gonzaga University in Spokane for two. After that, he was head volleyball coach at Pateros High School for more than 20 years.
He never forgot Cristy and the Cook family.
“I can’t imagine the Cooks’ grief,” he says. “They asked me to scatter Cristy’s ashes off the dock at Boyer Park.
“That whole year was a hard year. There was a lot of grief. It flowed over into everything we did. Accidents like that change culture. They change policy. It was part of my education. I learned that I should have been shepherding the flock home. I should have been first.”
‘Humble and grateful’
Tammy (Cook) Lindberg
Cristy and Tammy were walking down the mall early in fall semester 1979 when they spotted a table in front of the CUB. At it, rowers were recruiting for Cougar Crew. “I think Cristy saw it as something we could do together,” says Tammy (Cook) Lindberg (’84 Hum. Nutr. and Food Systems) who stands under 5 feet tall and, “at that time, I was like 88 pounds.”
She was a coxswain that season and recalls running the stadium stairs with the rowers. “We were novices,” she says. “We were just starting.”
Cristy, it seemed, was excellent in everything, Tammy says. “And, boy, did I struggle. I was always getting into the weeds, and she seemed to be able to carry the weeds and everything else with her and just know how to do things. I envied how things looked so easy for her. But she never lorded it over me. She was always trying to bring me up. She was just really brilliant. She could do anything she put her mind to.
“Cristy was one of those natural leaders. She had the charisma and air of confidence that would draw people to follow her. And if there were those standing at the sidelines, she would seek their participation by reaching out and engaging them. She always wanted to include people. She was loyal to her family and friends and protected the underdog even if it was a cost to her personally. She is the reason I pushed myself to get out of my introverted comfort zone.”
The accident “is just a blank. I don’t even know who was in my car. You just go into shock. It was all sort of in slow motion. I do know that they kind of held me off. I do know that she was not doing well. They just kind of guided me back to my car, and they sat with me.”
Tammy, just 16 months younger than Cristy, went home to her parents after the accident. She returned to campus after Thanksgiving “for like a week. And I just couldn’t,” she says. “I withdrew. I just couldn’t really function. I really felt that the wrong person had been taken from this earth. I think it helped push myself to do better. I really wanted to do better.”
Spring semester 1980, Tammy retook the classes she couldn’t finish that fall, and moved in with Deb Knight and Jana (Calvert) Quinlan (’82 Busi.). “I really think I took my big-sister need and applied it to them,” Tammy says. “Many times I would fall asleep at the end of Jana’s bed while she studied late at night. I had people looking out for me. When Jana graduated, it was hard, but I found friends and really focused on getting through. I had a lot of good classmates and professors. I was just a year behind.”
Within a year of Cristy’s death, the Cook family donated a shell named in her honor. “It’s not just a shell. It’s not just a boat,” Tammy says. “It has deep meaning to us.”
Tammy didn’t return to Cougar Crew. But she maintains respect for the team. “There’s just a solidness of character in people who row,” she says. “They have to overcome so much. The struggle is what makes you so tough.”
Today, Tammy is a dietitian who retired from the US Air Force as a lieutenant colonel. She has a son and a daughter, whom she named Cristy Cay in honor of her sister. Pullman holds a special place in her heart. “There’s something really special about Pullman and the wheat fields,” she says. “I reflect on that a lot.”
While she didn’t attend the wreath-laying memorial, Tammy watched the video online—and was impressed. “How did I feel for the crew to memorialize Cristy? Humble and grateful,” Tammy says. “It was far more extravagant than what I was envisioning. The way they filmed it was beautiful. They put a lot of thought into it. It’s an honor that they would do that for Cristy after 45 years. It was good for me personally because I didn’t realize how I had suppressed so much. It provided a lot of closure for me.”
Afterward, Knight shared a photo of a bald eagle that flew over during the ceremony. “It made me smile because I knew Cristy was there in spirit,” Tammy says. “When we were in 4-H together in Decatur, Texas, we were competing in public speaking. Cristy was in the senior category, and I was in the junior category. My speech was on raising show rabbits, and Cristy’s speech was on bald eagles. We had listened and practiced together extensively. I spoke first, and then Cristy spoke after. She was so focused on my speech and me doing well that during her speech she said, ‘And the rabbit has a wingspan of five and a half to eight feet long.’ Deb’s photo of that bald eagle hovering over the wreath-laying on the Snake River reminds me of a fond memory and validates that Cristy’s spirt was with everyone who was so gracious to acknowledge her and what she meant to family and friends.”
Keeping her name
Tammy Crawford
Tammy Crawford never met Cristy. She came to Pullman in fall 1980, nearly a year after the accident, and rowed for WSU.
“I was aware there had been an accident, and I knew where it had happened,” says Crawford (’85 Biol., ’04 MA, ’07 PhD Ed. Admin.). “I was very conscious and concerned when I was driving my teammates (to and from the river) in my car. At that time, we all drove our own cars. After the accident, there was a lot of uncertainty about whether we should be doing that.
“I became even more aware of the accident because Cristy’s parents bought a shell and dedicated it in her honor. It was a big deal to row in the boat with Cristy’s name on it. It was a beautiful cedar shell made by Pocock Racing Shells out of Seattle. It was a privilege to get to row in such a beautiful boat. It was really special of them to donate a shell in Cristy’s memory.”
After graduation, Crawford went on to coach women’s rowing at the University of Washington. In 1990, she returned to WSU as head coach of the intercollegiate women’s crew, holding the position until 2002.
In the mid-1990s, Crawford sold the Pocock shell to the fledgling Commencement Bay Rowing Club and replaced it with a state-of-the art carbon fiber shell dubbed Cristy Cay Cook II. “The goal was to make sure we honored her legacy and kept her name,” Crawford says. “I felt that it was my responsibility for students to know who Cristy was.”
Crawford, now an associate professor of sport management at WSU, was reading the Winter 2024 issue of Pull Hard, a Cougar Crew publication, when her “heart just sank.” Essays from Cristy’s parents and sister mentioned how much they wish the Pocock shell had remained in Pullman.
“They sounded so sad that it had been sold. And I felt sick and sad because I’m the one who sold it,” Crawford says. “My goal was to honor them and Cristy by keeping Cristy’s name ever-present. The older shell was no longer of race caliber for the WSU team, but I thought it could have a new life with another team. By naming a new WSU racing shell the Cristy Cay Cook II I thought I was honoring her name and continuing her legacy.”
“Mostly, I want to apologize to Darwin, Sherry, and Tammy. I take the blame for the original shell leaving the Snake River, and I’m sorry. Everyone reads the names on the shells, and it’s a big deal. I was trying to honor Cristy. I did not consider the impact selling the original CCC would have on the Cooks. I feel so heartsick that I hurt them. That wasn’t my intention.”
Keeping the story alive
Mike Klier
Mike Klier (‘75 Physics) coordinated the wreath-laying ceremony and moment of silence in honor of Cristy during the 2024 Cougar Crew Days. Here’s what he wrote about the memorial:
It started with an act of incredible generosity, which was itself a response to loss that became an exemplar of decency in the face of tragedy. Forty-four years later the time seemed right to return that moment to living memory.
The Planning Committee approved the proposal for a memorial in November 2023. The ceremony was designed as an allegory. We would row away from the sun to the land of the departed to remember and renew our kinship, leave an offering of flowers, and return, into the sun, in a manner symbolic of death and resurrection. We were three days from the equinox, the onset of the renewal that is spring. The service would center around three shells: the wreath-laying eight-oared shell, crewed by Cristy’s friends and classmates; the 1971 founders’ eight-oared shell; and the 2024 men’s first varsity eight. The latter two span our entire history and would, symbolically, represent everyone who has ever rowed for the Cougar Crew.
Because the ceremony had been designed to be held beyond the world of our everyday activities, real-time video and audio from the on-water service were planned for transmission to those participating on land following a service to be given there by Coach Ken Struckmeyer. The drone coverage worked beautifully. However, the desire to transmit audio from the CoxBox of the wreath-laying shell proved not to be successful.
Eleven boats in all—the bulk of the inventory of the Ken Abbey Shellhouse—participated in brilliant sunshine on the morning of March 16, 2024. Men and women, young and old, those with distinguished rowing careers and those on their way to distinction, came together to serve a common purpose. The wind came up and made short work of the planned, tightly packed, geometric pattern that was designed to allow everyone on the water to see and hear the service. The coaching staff escorted the participants to quiet water and, in the end, the open, natural arrangement of shells had a majestic character that would not have otherwise been achieved.
Recruiting for the ceremony was sometimes easy, sometimes difficult. The Meat Wagon 1979 National Champions confirmed in 24 hours. Others took longer. There was a curious rationale expressed on occasion when the offer to participate was declined: “I didn’t know Cristy.”
Neither did I, but that is not really the point. We are either shipmates, or we are not. If we are, then we are shipmates to the end.
For myself, the memorial was more than a remembrance. It was the passing on of commitment. The current membership of the Cougar Crew are the manifestation of the program founded 54 years ago. As such they are now the inheritors of our legacy, our victories, and our tragedies. By their participation in this memorial, the responsibly for maintaining the virtues and beliefs that define what it means to be one of us have passed to them. The example of the Cook family is the definition of the greatest of those virtues. It is to them, the current membership, we now entrust the privilege of keeping that story alive.
‘Outpouring of love and support’
Darwin and Sherry Cook
Darwin (’60 Elec. Eng.) and Sherry Cook, parents of Cristy and Tammy, shared this reflection on the 2024 wreath-laying memorial.
We never imagined the outpouring of love and support from all the WSU crew and friends in the 45th anniversary memorial last March for the remembrance of Cristy. It is hard to believe this fall will be 45 years since Nov. 7, 1979. We were greatly touched by all the hard work by so many people to make the remembrance a very special occasion. We have received many letters and comments from people after they read the Winter 2024 Pull Hard article, including a telephone call from past WSU President Sam Smith and his wife, Pat. We have been thrilled to know Sam and Pat because of the barbecue we helped sponsor, along with the Beasleys and Brunsteads, for new WSU students at Port Ludlow for about 10 years.
Cristy wanted to go to WSU as soon as she could talk. She was born in Moses Lake the summer before Darwin’s senior year at WSU. She was always very active and a wonderful daughter. She learned to cook at an early age and was good at finding new recipes I had never tried. She made freezers of homemade ice cream for special occasions and many family meals. Cristy volunteered a lot, even taking ice cream to school to raise money for a class project. She made many kinds of cookies, including fortune cookies, to help with funds for her high school.
We had a six-stanchion barn, milking 45 to 50 head with a 600-gallon refrigerated milk tank. Cristy worked with us on the farm, feeding dairy heifer replacement calves on the bucket with Tammy, rounding up and vaccinating our livestock, Holstein and Hereford beef cattle, taking care of horses, and more. She actually milked by herself a couple of times when she was 12 years old because I had to be in another place.
More about Cristy Cay Cook and the memorial
News coverage of the accident: Spokane Chronicle, Daily Evergreen
The 1980 Chinook (WSU yearbook)