I met Dave Cole at a Colorado Mining Association Annual Meeting in the early 90's when I was working for the U.S. Bureau of Mines.  But I didn't really get to know him until a few years later in 1996 when I was hired by the Colorado Mining Association Education Foundation (CMAEF) as the Course Coordinator of the All About Mining  A Total Concept of the Mining Industry, a four-week, summer course for K-12 teachers.  Dave was the long-serving and very-dedicated Secretary/Treasurer of CMAEF.  I learned that I would be working with him to organize and conduct the annual course that had begun in 1969 and had continued every summer thereafter at the Colorado School of Mines.  His and my joint responsibilities included everything from raising funds; to recruiting teachers; to keeping everybody safe on field trips; to preparing recognition, personalized, onyx-paperweights for first-time donors and volunteers assisting with the course; to co-authoring a comprehensive, 24-page, annual report about the course and CMAEF; and even to organizing a special graduation party recognizing the teachers in that year's graduating class, their sponsors, and all the volunteers who helped make every class successful.  We worked together on these and many other course requirements, with him always having a Can Do!, inspirational approach evidenced by the twinkle-in-his-eyes and a smile-on-his-lips matched with his let's-get-this-done-again, quiet determination.

Dave introduced me to his countless friends and associates who volunteered their time, financial resources, and/or knowledge to ensure that every course was successful in instructing teachers about mining and its associated industries, so that thousands of students taught by the teachers would learn about our important industry.  His style was open and warm to me, as well as to all the others with whom we made contact.  We would always have a Coors with interested teachers after dinners on overnight field trips (even after 12 to 15 hours on the road to the Western Slope to visit a mine or reclamation site!) to answer any of their questions about what they had seen on particular site visits.  He loved working with teachers, and he and Marge, his wife, financially sponsored a teacher every year in the course.  He was highly respected by all the teachers who were students in the course.  Dave will be missed by his family, friends, and colleagues.  His indirect impact on the thousands of K-12 students who were, are, and will be influenced by the 1548 teachers from 36 states, plus the District of Columbia; three countries; and with the many others with whom he came in contact during his many years of service, is a wonderful, monumental legacy that few earth science professionals achieve in their lifetimes, and of which future generations of his family can be proud.  I'm honored to have worked with this wonderful individual!

GLÜCK AUF, MY FRIEND!

Our deepest sympathy for the loss of David. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Dave was an intelligent, kind and generous man who put service to others and the interests of all who worked in mining above himself.  Rest in peace, Dave.

Dave was an outstanding Miner and representative of the industry.  He was a great influence on all he worked with and to all the teachers who took 'All About Mining' at CSM.  I will never forget his sense of humor and the good times he and Art Meyer had each evening on the field trips.

Uncle Dave was such a great guy with the best sense of humor.  He will be missed at family gatherings.  Hugs, David, Laura & Amy Hansen (and Rich Walker)

OBITUARY

David R. Cole

July 13, 1931 – March 20, 2016

Olinger Funeral, Cremation & Cemetery - Crown Hill

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