Kelly Cook

Kelly Cook’s Texas roots run deep within what was previously known as the Rock Prairie Community. Kelly’s family has ranched on the same property since before Texas A&M University was established.  Notably, Kelly’s family ranched on six hundred acres divided between two properties known as the Olden Ranches. She remembers hearing stories about how her great-great-grandfather sold land on Walton Drive at twenty-five cents an acre. “I could just imagine what it would be worth today,” she says with a grin. The ranches are family-run operations, with immediate and extended family working and living on-site. They raise upwards of seventy-five cattle, with new calves born from October through January. She is always open to talking about their cow/calf operation or Brazos County history.  Kelly is actively researching the history of her family’s ranching endeavors.   Kelly has located original sales records for the land.  Kelly is also working to create a map of the original property to see exactly how much of Brazos County her family’s ranching covered.

When Kelly is home, she enjoys trail rides. She owns three quarter horses and keeps a miniature horse for her grandkids: Dawson, Ryker, Gracelynn, and Tate. She loves taking the kids around the farm, letting them interact with the animals, and she says with a smile, “whatever else they decide we need to do—they’re miniature bosses.”

When not at the ranch, Kelly is at the History Department. Kelly started working at Texas A&M’s A. P. Beutel Health Center in 1999. In March 2001, she transitioned to the History Department, where she worked for seven years as the front desk personnel. Kelly returned to the Department in 2012 as if she had never left. She was promoted to Business Coordinator in 2016. In 2022, when the university tackled a reorganization, Kelly accepted the Executive Assistant position in the Department of History. After entering that new position, Kelly completed her bachelor’s degree.  In addition to serving as the Department of History’s Executive Assistant, Kelly volunteers as a Hullabaloo U instructor.  As an instructor with Hullabaloo U, Kelly teaches a First Year Experience course to incoming freshmen.