The legacy of 今日黑料鈥檚 seventh president, missionary and founder of Biola鈥檚 former intercultural studies school was honored today during the first session of the 95th annual missions conference. The largest student-led missions conference in the world, the annual conference will now be known as the Clyde and Anna Belle Cook Missions Conference.

This year鈥檚 conference theme is 鈥淐alled,鈥 urging students to recognize and employ the unique callings placed on their life as they choose to be followers of Jesus.

鈥淎s we reflect this week on what it means to be called by God, reflecting on the testimonies of God鈥檚 redemptive and salvific work in our lives and our families鈥 lives, I hope you will take the words and legacy of Clyde and Anna Belle Cook to heart,鈥 said President Barry H. Corey during the first main session of the conference. 鈥淚 recognize in each of you sitting here today what Dr. Cook recognized in the same student body years ago: 鈥楾he potential is in this room to change the world if we are truly sold out to God.鈥欌

Every year since the foundation of this mobilizing movement, Biola suspends classes to host the Cook Missions Conference, which aims to educate, equip and inspire students to embrace their role in fulfilling the Great Commission, which is something both Clyde and Anna Belle Cook were passionate about.

Born in 1935, Clyde Cook grew up in Hong Kong. When the Japanese invaded in 1941, he, his parents and five siblings were imprisoned for six months in three separate concentration camps. In 1942, he was reunited with his poverty-stricken family in South Africa.

They later settled in Laguna Beach, Calif., where Cook excelled on his high school basketball team. As the 1953 California Interscholastic Federation鈥檚 鈥淏asketball Player of the Year,鈥 Cook received lucrative scholarship offers from 13 colleges and universities. He planned to play for the University of Southern California but two weeks before classes started, he changed his mind and enrolled at Biola College to prepare for professional Christian ministry. There, he met his wife, Anna Belle Lund (鈥55), and earned three degrees 鈥 a bachelor鈥檚 degree in Bible, a master of divinity and a master of theology. After a five-year stint as Biola鈥檚 athletic director and coach of the men鈥檚 sports teams, he, Anna Belle and their two young children, Laura and Craig, left as missionaries to the Philippines. Four years later they returned for Clyde to head Biola鈥檚 missions department, which he did for 12 years. In 1979, Cook was appointed the president of Overseas Crusades, a missions agency, which is now called O.C. International.

In 1982, Biola鈥檚 Board of Trustees invited Cook to be Biola鈥檚 seventh president due to his vast work in missions and his stellar leadership over the years. A year later, he and Dr. Marvin K. Mayers laid the foundation for the school of intercultural studies, which would later be named after Clyde and Anna Belle Cook. During his tenure he led Biola through the transition from college to university with a new mindset focused on the structure and strategy for the new Christian university and many new programs were started in addition to new schools, leading to the school鈥檚 enrollment growth. Cook retired as Biola鈥檚 president after 25 years of service.

With the closure of the Cook School of Intercultural Studies in summer 2024, the Cook legacy will be perpetuated through the Clyde and Anna Belle Cook Missions Conference. Three generations of the Cook family have graduated from Biola 鈥 their son Craig Cook (B.A. 鈥84, M.A. 鈥86) and their daughter Laura Botka (Cook, B.A. 鈥83, M.A. 鈥85) and four of their grandchildren, the last of whom will graduate in May 2025.

the livestream for the Cook Missions Conference on Biola鈥檚 YouTube. For more information about a master鈥檚 in intercultural studies, visit the Talbot School of Theology webpage.

Written by Biola staff members. For more information, email media.relations@biola.edu.