W. Keith Cooke began his career in 1978, working under his father, William “Billy” Cooke, at Essex Concrete Corporation. For the next 41 years, Keith worked his way up the ranks, starting off driving mixer trucks, then overseeing septic-system installations (and was occasionally involved in installing them himself), becoming a plant manager then general manager then President.

During his time at Essex Concrete, Keith had the opportunity to work with many different materials; serve multiple customers in the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, and Richmond Metropolitan, and later Fredericksburg areas; and learn from a number of industry leaders.

Keith began operating WK Cooke LLC in 2020, following his time at Essex Concrete, hoping to serve local residents and contractors and to fill a void in service and response time. The business has grown from a one-dump-truck operation with a single employee to an operation that now includes four dump trucks, a concrete pump truck, two tractor-trailer trucks, multiple dump trailers and excavating equipment, a log trailer, and seven employees.