"Cook [was born in 1960 and] grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama, near Mobile. His father was a shipyard worker, while his mother was a homemaker. Cook graduated from high school at Robertsdale High School, earned a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1982, and his M.B.A. from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in 1988."
His family might have been blue-collar, but you seem to be right in that after graduation in 1982 he would have been 22, and presumably taken a regular white-collar job and later entered business school. Pretty standard trajectory.
"Cook [was born in 1960 and] grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama, near Mobile. His father was a shipyard worker, while his mother was a homemaker. Cook graduated from high school at Robertsdale High School, earned a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1982, and his M.B.A. from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in 1988."
His family might have been blue-collar, but you seem to be right in that after graduation in 1982 he would have been 22, and presumably taken a regular white-collar job and later entered business school. Pretty standard trajectory.