Robert Cooke earned an undergraduate degree from the Newark State College and an MFA with a concentration in ceramics and sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. He was an associate professor at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University for almost thirty years and he had conducted numerous workshops, lectures, and special projects off campus as well, including one on cast iron techniques. In New Jersey, he is represented in public collections at the New Jersey State Museum, and other fine art institutions. The study of dreams, Zen Buddhism, and alchemy are among Cooke’s varied interests. He lives and maintains a studio in a renovated schoolhouse near the Poconos in Pennsylvania.