{{Short description|American diplomat and academic}} {{other people|Charles Cole}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | birth_name = Charles Woolsey Cole | birth_place = [[Montclair, New Jersey]], US | birth_date = February 8, 1906 | death_date = February 20, 1978 | death_place = at sea | alma_mater = [[Amherst College]], B.A. 1927<br />[[Columbia University]], M.A. 1928 and Ph.D.1931 | nickname = Charlie | term1 = | term_end1 = September 27, 1964 | term_start1 = October 21, 1961 | office2 = 12th President of [[Amherst College]] | term_end2 = 1960 | term_start2 = 1946 | office1 = [[United States Ambassador to Chile]] | predecessor2 = [[Stanley King]] | succeeded2 = [[Calvin Plimpton]] | succeeded1 = [[Ralph A. Dungan]] | predecessor1 = [[Robert F. Woodward]] }} '''Charles Woolsey Cole''' (February 8, 1906 – February 20, 1978) was an American diplomat and academic. He was the [[United States Ambassador to Chile]] and the president of [[Amherst College]].
==Early life== "Charlie"<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=February 4, 1946 |title=Education: Cole to Amherst |url=https://time.com/archive/6773039/education-cole-to-amherst/ |access-date=March 19, 2026 |website=[[Time (magazine)]]}}</ref> Cole was born February 8, 1906 in [[Montclair, New Jersey]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Delta Kappa Epsilon Politicians in New Jersey |url=https://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/NJ/delta-kappa-epsilon.html |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=The Political Graveyard}}</ref> He graduated from [[Montclair High School (New Jersey)|Montclair High School]].<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=February 8, 1978 |title=Charles Cole, Former President of Amherst |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-republican-charles-cole-former-pres/193738269/ |access-date=March 19, 2026 |work=Springfield Daily News |pages=20 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
He attended [[Amherst College]], graduating [[summa cum laude]] and [[Phi Beta Kappa]] in 1927.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /> While there, he was a brother of the [[Delta Kappa Epsilon]] fraternity and [[Delta Sigma Rho]]<ref name=":1" />
Cole received an M.A. from [[Columbia University]] in 1928.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=Presidential Gallery {{!}} Archives Exhibitions |url=https://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/exhibitions/presidents |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=Amherst College}}</ref> He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1931.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |date=1978-02-08 |title=Charles W. Cole Dies; Once Amherst Head |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/02/08/110921750.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 |access-date=2026-03-19 |work=The New York Times |page=B2 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":8" /> His scholarly interest were the [[17th century France|17th‐century France]] and [[mercantilism]], especially [[foreign trade]] under [[Louis XIV]].<ref name=":5" />
== Career == Cole taught at Columbia University from 1928 to 1934.<ref name=":7">{{Cite news |date=February 8, 1978 |title=Charles Woolsey Cole |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-recorder-charles-woolsey-cole/193739661/ |access-date=March 19, 2026 |work=Greenfield Recorder |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He was a [[Social Science Research Council]] fellow for year.<ref name=":7" /> He published ''French Mercantilist Doctrines Before Colbert'' in 1931.''<ref name=":0" />''
Cole became professor of economics at Amherst College in 1935.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":8" /> He published ''Colbert and a Century of French Mercantilism'' in 1939''.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":0" />'' He became a history professor at [[Columbia University]] in 1940 to 1945.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":8" /> He also taught military government for the [[United States Navy]].<ref name=":4" /> During [[World War II]], Cole worked for the [[Office of Price Administration]] in Washington, D.C. for one year and was a regional price executive in New York City for two years.<ref name=":7" />
Cole was the twelfth president of Amherst College from 1946 to 1960.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Charles W. Cole (AC 1927) Papers Finding Aid |url=http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/monarch/findaids/amherst/ma163_scope.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926220027/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/monarch/findaids/amherst/ma163_scope.html |archive-date=2011-09-26 |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=Amherst College Archives & Special Collections}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> He grew the college's endowment from $16 million to $42 million.<ref name=":5" /> He implemented a program requiring freshmen and sophomores to follow a "core curriculum" of English, European civilization, foreign language, and science, rather than electives.<ref name=":5" /> This curriculum was in use at Amherst from 1948 to 1966.<ref name=":5" />
Cole retired from Amherst in 1960.<ref name=":6" /> In 1961, [[John F. Kennedy|President John F. Kennedy]] appointed Cole to be [[United States Ambassador to Chile]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /> He served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Chile) from October 21, 1961 to September 27, 1964.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles Woolsey Cole - People - Department History - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/cole-charles-woolsey |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=United States Department of State}}</ref>
Cole was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1948.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2025-04-10 |title=Charles Woolsey Cole |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/charles-woolsey-cole |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |language=en}}</ref> He was a member of the [[American Association of University Professors]], the [[American Historical Association]], the [[American Economic Association]], and the [[Council on Foreign Relations]].<ref name=":1" /> He served on the boards of the [[Committee on the National Security Organization]], [[Educational Testing Service]], the [[Charles E. Merrill|Merrill Foundation for the Advancement of Financial Knowledge]], and the [[Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association]].<ref name=":2" />
==Personal life== Cole married Katharine Bush Salmon, a writer who attended [[Smith College]].<ref name=":4" /> They had two daughters, Katharine and Elizabeth.<ref name=":5" /> Katherine died in 1972.<ref name=":7" /> He married Marie Greer Donahue in 1974.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />
He was vice president of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] and served on the board of the [[American Cancer Society]], and Wilton Academy.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" />
Cole died from a heart attack on February 20, 1978, while on a cruise ship off Los Angeles, California.<ref name=":0">[http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/co2.htm New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors]</ref><ref name=":5" /> He was buried in [[Wildwood Cemetery (Amherst, Massachusetts)|Wildwood Cemetery]] in [[Amherst, Massachusetts]].<ref name=":5" />
==Selected publications==
=== Books === * Cole, Charles Woolsey [https://ia601509.us.archive.org/25/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.189441/2015.189441.French-Merchantilist-Doctrines-Before-Colbert.pdf . ''French Mercantalist Doctrines Before Colbert'']''.'' New York: Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1931 * Cole, Charles Woolsey. ''[[iarchive:dli.ernet.1307|Colbert And A Century of French Mercantilism]]''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939. * Clough, Shepard Bancroft and Cole, Charles Woolsey. ''[[hdl:2027/mdp.39015001806549|Economic History of Europe]]''. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1941. * Cole, Charles Woolsey. [[iarchive:frenchmercantili0000cole_d2n9/page/n5/mode/2up|''French Mercantalism 1683-1700'']]. New York: Columbia University Press, 1943. * Hayes, Carlton J. H. and Baldwin, Marshall Whithed and Cole, Charles Woolsey. ''[[iarchive:historyofeurope0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up|History of Europe]]''. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1949.
=== Journals ===
* Cole, Charles Woolsey. “[[doi:10.2307/2143343|The Relativity of History]].” ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol. 48, no. 2 (1933): 161–71. doi.org/10.2307/2143343.
==See also== *[[John William Ward (professor)|John William Ward]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkoh-cwc-01 Charles W. Cole Oral History Interview–4/26/1969] (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum) * [https://archivesspace.amherst.edu/repositories/2/resources/164 Charles W. Cole (AC 1927) Papers] (Amherst College Archives & Special Collections)
{{s-start}} {{s-dip}} {{succession box|title=[[United States Ambassador to Chile]]|before=[[Robert F. Woodward]]|after=[[Ralph A. Dungan]]|years=October 21, 1961 – September 27, 1964}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box | before=[[Stanley King]]| title= President of [[Amherst College]]| years=1946–1960 | after=[[Calvin Plimpton]] }} {{s-end}}
{{Ambassadors of the United States to Chile}} {{Amherst College presidents}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Charles W.}} [[Category:1906 births]] [[Category:1978 deaths]] [[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Chile]] [[Category:Columbia University faculty]] [[Category:Columbia University alumni]] [[Category:Amherst College alumni]] [[Category:Presidents of Amherst College]] [[Category:20th-century American academics]]