Toby Pat Cole

Toby P. Cole, M.D., died in his home on Thursday, May 26, 2022, at the age of 85. Born to Claude and Mary in southern California in 1936, Toby spent his childhoods with his older brother Terry, swimming in the Pacific Ocean and hiking in the San Bernardino Mountains. Toby went to Disneyland the first day it opened to the public in 1955 and worked as a park ranger for Yosemite National Park. The first of his family to go to college, he graduated from UCLA in 1959 with a degree in geology before moving to San Francisco to attend the UCSF Medical School. There, he met Paulene, his wife of 58 years. The two were married in 1963, just after Toby graduated from medical school. They spent the next several years living all over the country while Toby practiced as a medical doctor for the United States Air Force. Toby and Paulene eventually settled in Colorado in 1968 and he retired from the Air Force in 1971 with the rank of Major. Toby then spent 28 years working as an internal medicine physician with the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, a medical practice he was instrumental in bringing to the Colorado region. Toby retired from Kaiser in 2000, having been the Executive Medical Director for the last 15 years of his career. Toby sat on multiple boards over the years, including the former Bonfils Blood Center and Colorado Christian University, and he enjoyed more than a decade as the announcer for the Denver Ballet Guild’s Le Bal de Ballet Debutante Ball and the Colorado Ballet Sugarplums Program. Toby spent the final 22 years of his life reading, watching John Wayne movies, traveling with his beautiful wife, practicing his faith, and doting on his grandchildren. Toby was an incredibly generous, loving, unassuming, and faithful man, and his passing is a tremendous loss for his surviving family: his wife, Paulene; four children, Jeff, Craig (Shannon), Scott (Holly), and Andrea (Johann); and his eight grandchildren, Mackenzie, Caroline, Graham, Mitchell, Ada, Jay, Wyatt, and Elijah. “Papa” provided a wonderful life for his family and words cannot express how loved and admired he was. Toby did not want a funeral or memorial service and, in lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations in his honor to one of his two favorite charities: Fundación “Yo Te Amo” Colorado (fyta.org), or Colorado Christian University (ccu.edu).

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.olingerchapelhill.com for the COLE family.