Joseph Cole

Celebrating 95 Years of Life   Dr. Joseph W. Cole passed away peacefully on Thursday, June 16, at the age of 95, surrounded by his family.     Joseph William Cole was born on May 2, 1916 in Castile, NY and lived on a farm with his parents, Mabel and William Cole, and his two siblings, Max and Laila. They moved to Perry, NY where they lived for two years before settling in Rochester, NY, where Joe was raised.     Joe went to school in Rochester and was involved with many activities such as track and field, acting, swimming, and gymnastics, and he competed often.  He was also a class officer in school.  He became involved with the YMCA which greatly influenced his life.  Throughout his life he thoroughly enjoyed racket sports - tennis, badminton, squash, and golf - which would become a post-retirement career opportunity.  In addition to keeping busy with sports in high school, he maintained two paper routes until he graduated high school in January of 1935.   Joe went to college at the University of Michigan where he majored in PE and earned a place on the gymnastics team.  He graduated in 1939 and registered for ROTC.  He tried to serve during WWII but was refused due to poor eyesight.     Joe got his first teaching job at Dalton Central School where he made $1, 300 a year.  He married Monica Eleanor Royce in 1941, who he had met in high school, and in 1941 they moved to Fillmore, NY.  Joe's time in Fillmore was a major educational experience.  He taught kindergarten through grade 12 and developed what was considered a "strong intermediate program."  He coached soccer, basketball, baseball and track, and the track team set a broad jump record.     On August 16, 1942, Monica and Joe welcomed their twin girls, Barbara and Joanie, who were born one month early.  Joe took on a second job of driving a school bus to support his family during the depression in the 1940s.     In 1946 they got a monkey as a mascot for the team that Joe coached.  The monkey stayed at the Cole household one weekend and was very jealous of the twins.  He would pull their hair and broke one of Monica's favorite vases.  Life in Fillmore was full of experiences and meeting good lifetime friends, but it was also one of the most tragic times in their lives when their daughter Joanie died suddenly in February of 1948.     Four months later Susan Marie was born and the family moved to Geneseo, NY and lived in four different houses, the first one being on the campus of Geneseo State College.  Joe received his Masters Degree in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Rochester in 1948.  During their time in Geneseo, Joe held a couple different jobs.  He was the Assistant Director of Holcomb School and the Director of Testing and Counseling at Geneseo State.   In 1951 Joe decided to go back to school to work on his doctorate degree.  From 1951 to 1954 he was off to Arlington and Cambridge, Massachusetts completing his doctoral work at Harvard.  Joe worked many early morning hours working on his dissertation.  In 1956, Joe and Monica welcomed another daughter Janet to the family.  Joe  received his doctorate degree in statistics from Harvard University in 1958.     In 1962 Joe celebrated the birth of his only son, Stephen.  The following year, he accepted a position as the Dean of the University of Rochester. During the 1960s, Dr. Cole worked at the University of Rochester, first as the Associate Provost in 1965, and then as Vice President of Student Affairs beginning in 1967.   During this period, he was also involved in community outreach events - Baden Street Settlement and School Board work.  Equity and quality education for all was an important focus.     Cleveland Career   In 1968 Dr. Cole started his career in Cleveland and began work as the Associate Provost at Case Western Reserve University.  He moved his family to Cleveland to take up roots here and accepted a position at CWRU as the Vice President of Student Affairs.  He came to Cleveland during turbulent times when the shootings occurred at Kent State University and CWRU students were protesting on Euclid Avenue see photo.  Dr. Cole stood and spoke with the students during the protests and spent the night with the students who had occupied the ROTC Building to help alleviate some of the unrest that was present in our city.     During these times when the demonstrations against the Vietnam War were at their height, Dr. Cole believed strongly in the student's right to protest and would go down to the buildings they occupied and spend both days and nights with them to negotiate.  He knew how important it was to keep the lines of communication open to resolve issues in a peaceful manner.   In 1974 Dr. Cole accepted a position with Cleveland State University as the Director of Career Services, a job that would bring him back to working with students, which is what he loved.  Before taking this position, however, he considered other opportunities such as VISTA or the Peace Corps.  But he had found his home here and decided to settle down and accept the position with CSU, a job he would keep until his retirement in 1981.     Retirement for Dr. Cole wasn't quite what some of us consider retirement.  He continued to teach Communications classes at CSU through his 89th birthday, and he developed and coached the CSU golf team.  He continued to play tennis and golf, and kept busy with outdoor activities.  It was nicely put in an article that appeared in the Plain Dealer on July 4, 2005:   ?ÛÜArticle:  Gift just keeps on giving for Cole's first-ever ace   ?ÛÜ"Joe Cole got a hole-in-one last week at Briarwood Golf Course."   "What's unusual is that his first ace came with a brand new club he received as a gift less than a week before.  What's even more unusual is that Cole, who was instrument in starting the golf program at Cleveland State where he was a professor, is 89..."   Joseph W. Cole, age 95 of Shaker Heights, OH. He was the beloved husband of the late Monica R. Cole nee Royce. He was the father of Barbara C. Browne Jim of South Riding, VA, Susan M. Cole of Shaker Heights, OH, Janet C. Kirschenbaum Dan of Gates Mills, OH, Stephen W. Cole Kathy of South Euclid, OH and the late Joanie Cole. He was also the grandfather of Jeff, Kristen, Julian, Dana, Andrew and Charlie and the great-grandfather of Anna, Matt, Patrick, Maeve and Finn. The family prefers that those who wish may make contributions in his name to Hospice of the Western Reserve, 300 E. 185th Street, Cleveland, OH 44119 or to Cleveland State University, Golf Program Fund, c/o Advancement Services, 2121 Euclid Avenue, KB - 300, Cleveland, OH 44115-9897. A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 25th at Brown-Forward, 17022 Chagrin Blvd., Shaker Heights, OH where friends may call one hour prior to the service.


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