Preston had a vast collection of over 40,000 eagle items (from coins to belt buckles to hood ornaments to two 2,500-pound granite eagles) that he donated to the National Bald Eagle Center in Wabasha.
Cook would drive west to San Francisco, where he and his wife, Donna, lived the other half of the year. Come April, he’d return, as would the birds. “I like being back here with the eagles,” he said.