 In the same year he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from the New England Conservatory.Cooke suffered a stroke in 1981, hampering his organ playing and choir directing, and he turned to composing full-time during the last 14 years of his life.On May 18, 1995, at the age of 84, he died in his sleep at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he had lived for 51 years.