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Person

Donald Raymond Cole

Also Don Cole · Donald Cole · Donald R. Cole · Donald Raymond Cole

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypePerson
Born1927-05-26
Died2023-08-14
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Person
Born
1927-05-26
Died
2023-08-14
Work
Treasurer, Saint James Township
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
conservationenvironmentcommunitygovernance
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

Donald Raymond Cole (26 May 1927 – 14 August 2023) was a lifelong Beaver Island resident, commercial fisherman and civic officeholder. The Beaver Beacon names him as Don Cole, the driver in a February 1962 account of a coyote encounter near the island airport, and, twelve years later, as Donald Cole, elected Saint James Township treasurer in November 1974.

History

The February 1962 Beacon “Cold Coyote” item names Don Cole as the driver of the truck from which the Martin twins spotted a coyote near the airport.1 In April 1969 the paper reported Donald Cole’s purchase of a 36-foot steel fish boat to expand his Beaver Island commercial-fishing business, the notice this record uses to bridge the informal “Don Cole” of 1962 to the fuller “Donald Cole” of later civic and business notices.2 In November 1974 he was elected treasurer of Saint James Township.3

Cole was born on Beaver Island on 26 May 1927, the son of Raymond Cole and Grace Gillespie Cole, and died there on 14 August 2023 at 96.4

Significance

Cole’s record here spans two ordinary but connected threads of a small island’s public life — a decade as a commercial fisherman and a term as township treasurer — recoverable only by bridging an informal newspaper name against later, fuller references and a 2023 obituary.

Evidence and limits

This record merges two episode articles the seeder minted from separate 1962 and 1974 newspaper appearances of “Don(ald) Cole.” The bridge is the 2023 Mortensen Funeral Homes obituary, which gives a single Donald Raymond Cole (1927–2023) as a lifelong Beaver Island resident, plus the April 1969 Beacon notice of Donald Cole’s commercial-fishing business, which both episode records independently cited to connect the informal “Don Cole” of 1962 to the “Donald Cole” of the 1974 election notice. No source read here places a second Donald Cole on the island in this period. A separate, earlier stub, Donald Cole (a June 1961 orphaned-fawn notice), is not part of this merge; it was seeded and is tracked outside this batch and may or may not concern the same man.

Open questions

  • The 1974 election notice gives no vote total or term length for the treasurer post, and no source read here documents whether Cole held it beyond that term.
  • The exact dates of Cole’s commercial-fishing career beyond the 1969 boat purchase are not established.

See also

Footnotes

  1. Beaver Beacon, February 1962, “Cold Coyote.” ↩

  2. Beaver Beacon, April 1969, island news. ↩

  3. Beaver Beacon, November 1974, “Election Results.” ↩

  4. Donald Raymond Cole obituary, Mortensen Funeral Homes, 2023. ↩

The dated record

2 dated events · 1927–2023These years on the timeline →

Sources

  1. Names Don Cole as the driver of the truck from which the Martin twins saw the coyote. Later Beaver Beacon notices identify the local Don Cole as Donald Cole, commercial fisherman and father of the Cole children.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1962-02_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1962-02_Beaver-Beacon
  3. Reports Donald Cole’s purchase of a 36-foot steel fish boat to expand his Beaver Island commercial-fishing business, providing a local identity bridge from the abbreviated name.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1969-04_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1969-04_Beaver-Beacon
  5. Reports that Donald Raymond Cole, age 96, died August 14, 2023, and was born May 26, 1927 on Beaver Island to Raymond Cole and Grace Gillespie Cole. The full name, Beaver Island residence, commercial-fishing activity, and local family notices establish the identity.
  6. Lists Donald Cole as Saint James Township treasurer; it provides no vote total or term.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-11_Beaver-Beacon
  7. The held eight-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1974-11_Beaver-Beacon

Added 1 August 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Donald Raymond Cole”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/people/donald-raymond-cole/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, February 1962, “Cold Coyote.” (and 6 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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