![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/DavidCookPA.png\")
Former lord mayor of Belfast David Cook has died with Covid-19.<\/p>\nFormer lord mayor of Belfast David Cook has died with Covid-19.<\/p>\n
Mr Cook died on Saturday at Craigavon Hospital, his family has said. He was in his 70s.<\/p>\n
He was a founding member of the Alliance Party in 1970 and was elected to both Belfast City Council and a previous Stormont Assembly during his political career.<\/p>\n
Alliance leader Naomi Long paid tribute to his vision, along with those who founded their party.<\/p>\n
She hailed his achievements, which included becoming the first non-Unionist to serve as Belfast\u2019s lord mayor when he took up the role in 1978.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe served the South Belfast electorate in Cromac in Belfast City Council from 1973 to 1985 and then at the ill-fated NI Assembly from 1982-86.<\/p>\n
\u201cA committed European, he also stood as an MEP candidate in 1984,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis loss in this, our 50th year, is all the more poignant as we never got to celebrate that anniversary together, as a result of Covid-19, to which he ultimately and tragically succumbed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy thoughts and those of the Alliance family are with Fionnuala and the wider family circle as they mourn his passing at this sad time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cook was a solicitor and also founded the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust, now known as the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
He is survived by his wife Fionnuala, children Barbary, John, Patrick, Julius and Dominic, granddaughters Romy and Imogen, and sisters Alison and Nora.<\/p>\n