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Joseph Kemp Cook, former mayor of Forest Heights and man who loved ones say dedicated his life to civic service, died Friday of congestive heart failure. He was 84.

Cook served as mayor of the town in 1999 and 2000 and as a town councilman in 1998 and 1999. A native of Washington, D.C., Cook moved to Forest Heights in 1954 after serving in the Navy during World War II and the Korean War, where he raised his four children with his wife, Augustine, who died in April 2008.

Friends and family say Cook dedicated his life to civic service after retiring from his job as a trust investment officer at the American Security and Trust Company in 1986.

"He was a man of faith, family and community service," said Cook's daughter Marian Knode, 55, of Edgewater. "We could probably go on for hours about his accomplishments."

Forest Heights Councilwoman Anne Reifsneider said she and Cook often played bingo together with his wife.

"He was a wonderful, wonderful man," she said. "He was always involved with things for other people," said.

Reifsneider said Cook's time as mayor of the town was brief, but he managed to steer the town clear of trouble by remaining a well-liked figure who avoided hoopla of small-town politics.

"Nobody could say anything bad about him," she said.

Cook left Forest Heights in 2007 and moved to the Riderwood retirement community in Silver Spring. He was hospitalized at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring on March 6 after suffering from anemia, dehydration and pneumonia, Knode said.

In addition to his community service, Cook was a fourth-degree member of Bishop Patrick Byrne Council 3877 of the Knights of Columbus and had served as state deputy for Washington, D.C. He was also a former member of St. Ignatius Church in Fort Washington. He also served on the board at the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute, the Loyola Retreat House, the Henry and Annie Hurt Home for the Blind and the Shoemaker Home.

His funeral was held Tuesday in Silver Spring. He will be buried at 9 a.m. May 28 Arlington National Cemetery will full honors.