Born in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, to a Canadian missionary family in 1915, Crook came into the world. While Isabel Crook's parents were engaged in setting up schools and education institutions in Southwest China, Crook herself was more interested in anthropology(人类学) and the ethnic minority groups in China. She was very curious about what was going on around her.
At the age of 23, Crook graduated from a Canadian college with a master's degree and began carrying out field research in Li County of Sichuan Province. In 1947, Crook and her journalist husband were warmly welcomed by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to observe and study the revolutionary land reform taking place in China. In 1948 the couple accepted an invitation from CPC leaders to teach at a newly-built foreign affairs school. The school was the forerunner of today's Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), which has seen over 400 ambassadors(大使) and 1, 000 counsellors walk through its doors. As a teacher at BFSU she laid the foundations for foreign language education in China.
As two of the first three foreign teachers at the school, Isabel and David Crook brought new Western teaching methodologies to the classroom. Michael Crook noted that since some students were extremely poor during the 1950s and 1960s, his parents were especially sensitive to their situation and did what they could to help them while protecting their self-esteem. For example, they would bring food such as eggs and bread for picnics and share them with students who brought steamed corn bread.
According to the younger Crook, because of his parents' belief in communism, they chose to use political texts as their teaching materials, such as works once admired by Karl Marx. Understanding that the students would become diplomats representing the People's Republic of China, his parents tried to help students gain knowledge in different fields to better prepare them for communicating with foreigners in English.
On December 15th 2018, Isabel got the award of "the Most Influential Foreigner throughout 40 Years of China's Development" from the Chinese government. On September 17, 2019, Isabel was awarded "the Friendship Medal" by the Chinese government for her lifetime of devotion to China.
