Tim Cook is arguably the head of the most successful tech company in the world right now, but like all greats and lesser mens, he was once a child, a pimply tall teenage schoolboy from the small town of Robertsdale, Alabama.
Cook doesn't like to share information about his past, however, thanks to the album of school photos, we can get an idea of what Tim looked like when he was at Salutatorian Robertsdale High School in 1978.
In that class at Robertsdale High, there was only one student who exceeded Tim Cook in grades - Teresa Prochaska Huntsman - seated to the left of Cook in the photo above. Teresa was given the honor of reading her farewell speech at graduation, while Cook was ranked second in the school's rankings.
This photo shows Tim Cook along with the rest of the staff who released the annual school album. Cook served as a business manager on this project during his senior year.
Cook was loved at school as one of the brightest students, says math teacher Barbara Davis.
As two of the best students in their class, Tim Cook and Teresa Huntsman (pictured below, creating a school album), worried that their chemistry teacher was not preparing them enough for admission to chemistry college. They both filed complaints against their mentor, demanding more intense classes, but they were told not to worry. Both went on to study Industrial Engineering at Auburn College.
Here's another photo of the yearbook team that Cook was in. Tim had three brothers, and they all started working as teenagers. The first job that Tim took up was delivering newspapers, then he worked in a restaurant, and later in a pharmacy with his mother.
In 1977 Tim Cook won the Baldwin EMC Youth Tour with Christine Gregorius of Fairhope High School. Former teachers describe him as a friendly, industrious lanky teenager who played trombone in a band and published the school's annual photo album.
See also:
- 30 years of sympathy and enmity between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in facts and photos.
- Ron Wayne is the Apple creator who ditched the company.
- 9 weird, controversial and curious moments in Apple history
