Ron Cooke arrived in Taumarunui as a child in 1946 and has spent most of his life in the district.
After being educated at Taumarunui Primary School and Taumarunui High School, he served an engineering apprenticeship with Wakelin Engineering and after 22 years in the trade became an offset printer, freelance sports photographer, photojournalist, publisher and photolab manager.
His first book was Pinetree Country with Ian Pilkinton in 1973 which was followed by many booklets and magazines (including Roll Back the Years) until he was involved with two district history books: Kaitieke (with Wilf Couper) and Otunui (for Patricia & Cliff Harris) which he published in 1985.
These were followed by:
- Bush Track to Highway (for Tui Brake in 1986);
- Waitanguru (for Stan Frederickson in 1987);
- Ngapuke (for Ngapuke 75th Jubilee Committee, 1991);
- When the Bells Toll (for Norma Turner & Bev Muraahi 1994);
- Servicing Caterpillar (for Ken Anderson 2000),
- Waimiha (with Audrey Walker 2003),
- Ongarue (for Lyndsay McMillan & Audrey Walker (2005)
- Patients First (2005)
- Taumarunui Borough 100 Years (for T&DHS 2010)
- From Low Gear to Overdrive Vol 1 (for T&DHS 2011)
- Kaitieke Celebrates Again (with M & J Petersen for Kaitieke Centennial Committee 2012)
- From Low Gear to Overdrive Vol 2 (with Audrey Walker for T&DHS 2013)
- Tringamoot (with Ken Anderson for T&DHS 2014)
- From Low Gear to Overdrive Vol 3 (with Audrey Walker for T&DHS 2015)
Ron also founded NZ Memories in June 1995. This high quality magazine was based on his popular Roll Back the Years series but instead of being restricted to the central King Country, NZ Memories covered, in rotation, all the regions and districts of New Zealand with a fascinating array of old photographs and written reminiscences.
