February 10, 1922 - December 19, 2010
King Forrest Cole Obituary
King Forrest Cole, a pivotal and much-beloved figure in the history of Spokane and the Inland Northwest, died peacefully last Sunday in his room at the Spokane Veterans home in Spokane. He was 88 years old. He was a civic leader, city father, the President of Expo ?74 and a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle, son and brother. He had countless friends in Spokane and around the world.
King was born on February 10, 1922 in Grand Junction, Colorado, the son of Albert M. and Elizabeth ("Gussie") Cole. He grew up in Oakland California, and spent his high school years as a seminarian in the Silesian and Franciscan orders of the Roman Catholic Church, though he stopped studying for the priesthood before taking his final vows in order to serve in the Navy toward the end of World War II. King remained a devout Catholic for the rest of his days.
During his stint in the Navy, he was stationed near Spokane and always dreamed of coming back someday. After the war, he attended Chico State College in Northern California and there met the love of his life, Janice Gravette. They were married in Jan's hometown of Red Bluff California on June 12, 1948. They soon moved to the Bay Area where King worked in the swimming pool business while he put himself through Law School at the University of California, San Francisco.
In the mid-1950?s, King began his career in urban development in California, most notably in San Leandro, where he worked until 1963, when he brought his family of ten to Spokane. King was invited to the region by Spokane Unlimited, a consortium of downtown business interests, as Executive Secretary of that organization. SU?s goal was to arrest and reverse the decline of Spokane's central business district, a phenomenon that was occurring throughout the country at that time.
King?s first large-scale project toward that end was the creation of the Parkade in downtown Spokane, a landmark structure with an innovative skywalk system that served to promote patronage of downtown businesses while alleviating parking congestion on the streets of downtown. Unfortunately, the city's center still had several strikes against it: a snarl of railroad tracks and run-down industrial sites obscuring what should have been the city's crown jewel, the beautiful Spokane river and its cascading falls that bisect the city so gracefully. It wasn't long in his tenure with Spokane Unlimited before he began to incubate an idea that a consulting firm had planted to take Spokane's downtown a quantum leap forward. It was a bold idea, but one that he knew would change the city and region for the better, if it could be pulled off: to remove that industrial blight by dint of the City's hosting a bona-fide World's Fair, leaving the legacy of a central park and a revitalized city center to replace the rampant urban decay. The theme of the Fair was to be ?Man and His Environment?, which envisioned a sustainable world the moment the Ecology was entering the American collective consciousness.
Once he became certain of the possibilities, King was undaunted by the many obstacles to that momentous goal: the need to get buy-in from the people of Spokane and their elected representatives; selling the idea to the Paris-based Bureau of International Expositions (this would be the smallest host city ever to host a World's Fair); talking the railroads into the monumental task of relocating perfectly usable tracks and terminals and donating the land to the city; and cajoling a war-distracted Federal government to approve and partially fund this unlikely venture. Among his proudest professional accomplishments was enrolling the Soviet Union as a featured participant during the height of the Cold War.
King, with Jan as his secret weapon, acted as the spearhead for this outrageous quest. It was an effort that eventually marshaled the forces of the entire region, forever changing Spokane into a city whose vibrant downtown is now unrivaled in natural beauty and community engagement. In the process of the community's achieving that goal, King Cole became a household name in the region, and he was given credit, as he often said, for an effort that would have been impossible without the toil and dedication of his many associates and of the people of Spokane themselves. He was the President of Expo '74, and as such was its main spokesman and promoter, but his real skill was his ability to get people to come together to achieve the impossible.
After the Fair was over, he began a new career as a consultant to other communities hosting large-scale events, including Knoxville, Tennessee?s Expo '82 and the Vancouver, BC World?s Fair in 1986. He retired 20 years ago, appearing in the local news occasionally, especially upon the anniversaries of Expo 74. He carried the Olympic torch for a portion of its winter relay in downtown Spokane in February of 2002. There is a street and a bridge named after him in Spokane?s Riverfront Park, and a scholarship for urban planning students was established in his name in 2000 at Eastern Washington University. His final effort on the civic front was a letter to the Spokane City Council earlier this year, urging them to convert the abandoned YMCA building in Riverfront Park into green space instead of a proposed commercial venture. The Council agreed with him, one last time.
King Cole was as much at home with a shovel and a yard of concrete as he was in the company of any company?s CEO or any country?s president, king or prime minister. He worked joyfully to help the poor in his parish?s missions in Guatemala and he instilled the importance of unconditional love and respect of all mankind to his progeny. He spoke several languages, loved literature, music, art, history, skiing, swimming, camping, fishing and fine wine, and he passed on these passions to his children. He was not perfect, but he was full of love. He knew what he believed in. He was generous beyond his means. He filled a room with his presence and his radiant smile. To him, every idea, every piece of information, was fodder for something greater. He was enthralled by technology and its ability to preserve and replay experiences and to connect people and endeavors across vast distances and diverse cultures. He never stopped being excited by the possibilities.
King Cole was the father of Expo ?74 and of modern-day Spokane, but his most important role to his family was as father to eight, grandfather to 17, great-grandfather to 8, and brother-in-law, uncle and godfather to even more. His five daughters - Ellen Cole Daum (Michael), Joan Cole Duffell (Denny), Mary Cole, Nancy Cole Hough and Lisa Cole Taylor (Scott), and his three sons - Bruce (Cathy) Cole, Marty (Ki) Cole and John (Mary Ellen) Cole, will all miss him deeply. He is also survived by his sister whom he adored, Marilyn McCrea of Walnut Creek, California. His other dear sister, Barbara Bentz, predeceased him last year.
No one will miss him more than his darling Jan to whom he was married for 62 years. After years of suffering from an extremely painful and debilitating neural disorder (peripheral neuropathy) which required him to live in a full-time care facility separate from Jan, King dedicated himself to exercise and physical therapy, making heroic ? and unexpected ? efforts to spend time with his wife, the woman he so loved. Throughout King and Jan?s life together, they were devoted to each other to a remarkable degree, and, indeed, their love was the subject of many kind remarks over the decades. It was also a model for their family and all who knew them.
Jan and her children and grandchildren want to especially thank the extraordinary caregivers at the Spokane Veterans Home where King spent the last two years. He was not only well cared for, he was loved and appreciated by the many kind folks there.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Poor Clare Nuns, Monastery of St. Clare, 4419 N Hawthorne St, Spokane, WA 99205, or to Catholic Charities of Spokane, PO Box 2253, Spokane, WA 99210.
The vigil and rosary will take place on Wednesday evening December 22nd at 7 PM at Our Lady of Fatima Church, 1517 E 33rd Avenue. Funeral mass will be Thursday the 23rd at 10 AM at Our Lady of Fatima. Private burial for family members will follow.