Linda Cook was born in Ogden, Utah, on November 29, 1953, to William R. Cook and Marilyn Joyce Denning.  She was the third of five children.  In 1955, her father took a job at the Atomic Energy Commission testing site in Arco, Idaho, and the family moved and took residence in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where she grew up.

Linda spent happy years as a child and as a teenager growing and attending schools on the west side of Idaho Falls--Temple View Elementary, Central Junior High, and eventually graduated from Skyline High School in 1972 where she was active in sports programs and drill team.  After graduation, she moved to Provo, Utah, and attended Brigham Young University where she played on the university's women's basketball and field hockey teams and received a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Medical Technology in 1976.  After receiving her undergraduate degree, she completed an internship at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake and accepted work as a medical technologist in the blood bank at St. Marks Hospital.  After a few years, she followed her family to Naperville, Illinois.  She was accepted to the graduate program at University Illinois at Chicago in 1978, graduating in 1985 with a Doctorate of Philosophy in Immunology, studying clinical microbiology and immunology.  She received and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical immunology at the University of North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Linda was very influential in her field of study as an immunologist.  She moved to the Boston area of New England and worked as a clinical instructor in pathology at the New England Deaconess Hospital and at Harvard University in the clinical pathology residency program, teaching immunology, microbiology, and infectious disease courses for the medical school.  Linda became the section head in the clinical immunology lab at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, MA, in 1986 and worked there for 13 years.

In 2001, she moved across the country when she was hired as the Associate Director of the molecular virology laboratory at the University of Washington and concurrently as a faculty associate and research scientist in the vaccine and infectious disease division at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center.  During her time as a director and as a research scientist, she was a popular speaker and consultant in her field.  She is listed as an author on more than 50 research papers and more than a dozen textbooks reflect chapters authored by her.  She is listed as a co-author of many abstracts and posters and was active in many professional organizations where she served in leadership positions.  Her main areas of interest were autoimmune disease, autoantibodies, infectious disease effects on transplants, and molecular diagnosis, but her research also included hepatitis B, fetal medicine, and stem cell technology projects.  She retired in March of 2020.

Linda was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She had a firm, unwavering, and dedicated testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and strove daily to live by inspiration as His disciple in her choices, activities, and interactions with others.  She served in many callings in her church throughout her life.  It seemed she was always involved with the youth—teaching, leading, and providing quality interaction with them, including working with refugee youth from Cambodia and Laos in Boston.  She participated in outdoor activities and spent many hours camping or engaged in her favorite physical pastimes with church members.  She also worked in callings in the Church's women's organization.  She served many years completing genealogy and temple work and loved to help others do the same.  She loved to speak and share her testimony and her Christian values defined her life.  She was greatly loved and all who knew her were changed for good by her positive outlook and influence.

Linda loved outdoor activities wherever she lived and was actively involved in camping, swimming, boating, water-skiing, hiking, kayaking, and traveling to experience the beauty and diversity of nature and cultures.  She loved visiting state and national parks and historic sites in the United States and in her international travels.  She loved her family and took every opportunity to travel with them and to attend family events, focusing on each individual in their turn.

Linda struggled with digestive tract issues all her life, which doctors found difficult to diagnose.  After two years of debilitating illness and an eventual diagnosis in October of 2019 of a rare form of stomach cancer, cancer took her life on August 14, 2020.

Linda was preceded in death by her parents and a niece, Marci Price.  She is survived by her siblings—Marilyn Simister (Kevin) of Lindon, Utah; Marsha Price (Mark) of Idaho Falls, Idaho; Brian Cook (Dana) of Eagle, Idaho; and Sandy Cook of Bellevue, Washington—and by 15 nieces and nephews with their spouses and children.

Interment will be in the Ammon Cemetery next to her parents in Idaho Falls, Idaho.  Arrangements are under the direction of Coltrin Mortuary, 2100 First Street, Idaho Falls.