A longtime fixture of the Benton Harbor community has died. Former Mayor Wilce Cooke passed away at the age of 83 on Monday. Cooke served as the mayor of Benton Harbor from 1981 to 1987, and then again from 2004 to 2011. He was a nurse for more than 50 years both at Mercy Hospital in Benton Harbor and at Lakeland Health System. Cooke was awarded an honorary doctorate at Andrews University in 2018, and in 2019, the city of Benton Harbor honored him by renaming city hall to the Wilce L. Cooke Municipal Building. Benton Harbor Mayor Pro Tem Duane Seats on social media Monday called Cooke a political mentor, one of a kind, and an elder statesman. Berrien County Commissioner Mamie Yarbrough told us she knew Cooke all of her life, and he was a gentleman, a scholar, and a good person. She noted that whenever she and her husband went to the local hospital, Cooke would seek them out, whether or not he was caring for them.
