Stacey Ward Cole

He was born in Keene on December 4, 1921, to Warren A. and Hazel E. (Ward) Cole. He was a lifelong area resident, and was a 1939 graduate of Vermont Academy in Saxton’s River, VT., and later from the University of New Hampshire, Thompson School of Applied Science in 1941.

He married Mildred E. Hale of Swanzey, NH on September 18, 1942.

He was the owner & operator of Red Crow Farm in West Swanzey since 1941. Over the years he earned many accolades in the Agricultural community including being a member of the Board of Directors and Past President of the NH Farm Bureau Federation between 1954 and 1962. In 1965 he won the Mary Lee Ware Trophy, the NH Farm Bureau’s highest award. He was the Executive Director of the NH Petroleum Council in Concord, NH from 1966 to 1985, and the Senior Agricultural Advisor to the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, DC in 1986. In 1987 he was appointed to the State Agricultural Advisory Board by then Gov. John Sununu. Also in 1987 he was the first person to be awarded the Agricultural Experiment Station Centennial Award. In 1988 he was awarded a life membership in the NH Farm Bureau Federation. In 1989 he received the Andrew L. Felker Award, presented by the NH Commissioner of Agriculture: Steven Taylor. In 1991 he received the Award for Distinguished and Meritorious Service to American Agriculture. In 1994, at the Eastern States Exposition he was awarded the Agricultural Adventures Award for “Distinguished service to New England Agriculture”.

Other honors bestowed were a University of New Hampshire Meritorious Service Award, presented in 1958. He was a Trustee of the University System of NH from 1974 until 1986. In 1986, the Stacey W. Cole Endowment Scholarship at The Thompson School of Applied Science was established. In 1990, COLE HALL was dedicated in his honor on the campus of UNH, by the Board of Trustees. Vermont Academy awarded him the Dr. Florence Sabin Distinguished Alumnus of Vermont Academy Award in 1991. Keene State College awarded him an Honory Doctor of Laws Degree at the 1996 commencement.

On the regional political front, he was a member of the NH House of Representatives 1965 until 1967 and again from 1989 until 1996, serving as the Deputy Speaker from 1993 until 1996. Former Governors: John W. King, Walter R. Peterson, Jr., Meldrim Thomson, Jr., Hugh J. Gallen, John H. Sununu and Judd Gregg also appointed him to various committees and commissions, such as the State Board of Fire Control from 1963 until 1986; he was the first Chairman of the NH Air Resources Commission in 1967, though a member of the Commission from 1962 until 1988; Vice Chairman of the Governor’s Energy Council from 1973 until 1978; he was a Member of the Governor’s Commission on the 21st. Century from 1989 until 1990; during their tenures.

He was a regularly featured nature columnist for the Manchester Union Leader from 1962 until his death.

Locally he was the Radio Farm Program Director at WKNE Radio Corp from 1943 until 1966; served on the Board of Directors of the Keene Savings Bank which became Granite Bank ( now known as Peoples Bank ) from 1958-1996, serving as Chairman from 1982 until 1996. He was on the Board of Directors for Granite State Bankshares, Inc. from 1986 until 1996; was the Town Moderator for the Town of Swanzey from 1967 until 1992.

He is predeceased by his wife, of 57 years; Mildred E. Cole, who passed on May 22, 2000.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, December 5, 2014 at 11:00 at the Community Church of West Swanzey, 7 Homestead Ave, W. Swanzey, NH. An hour of visitation will be held from 10:00 until 11:00 at the church. Burial will follow the service at the Woodland Cemetery, NED, in Keene.

Memorial contributions may be made, in lieu of flowers, to the Stacey W. Cole Endowment Scholarship Fund, c/o the University of New Hampshire (www.unh.edu), 105 Main St, Durham, NH 03824

Fletcher Funeral Home and Cremation Services, (www.fletcherfuneralhome.com) 33 Marlboro St, Keene has been entrusted with the arrangements.