Behind the business, Cole was for his family, community

Dec. 12—CHEYENNE — Frank Maurice Cole died on Nov. 29, leaving behind a legacy as a giant of Cheyenne who was often misunderstood, for beneath his persona as a business mogul was a man who cared about his family, the community and the people he worked with.

It's difficult to picture where Cheyenne would be today without the influence and impacts of Frank Cole, given that he constantly pushed the community in a positive direction.

He had the vision to look a little further into the future than his contemporaries, constantly chasing the potential he saw in the city.

"I think that this community is what it is today because of him," said Donna Cartwright, who was taken in by Cole at the age of 16. "I don't think that there will ever probably be any one person in our lifetimes, or maybe in our children's lifetimes, that will have had the same effect in shaping this community."

Looking through the city's history, one can see how Cole literally pushed Cheyenne to grow, building Cole Shopping Center, the first of its kind in the region, on the plot of land where Blue Federal Credit Union's world headquarters sits now. At the time of its construction, it was on the outskirts of the city.

Among all other talents, he first and foremost considered himself a civil engineer. He designed an expanse of Dell Range Boulevard, including The Bluffs, Walmart Supercenter, Sam's Club, Lowe's Home Improvement, Frontier Mall and Frontier Square, all of which he took the time to etch with his own touches in the architecture.

When he created something, he created it his way, at times sparking conflict in the process. It rarely stopped him, but when it did, it leaves one to speculate where Cheyenne would be now if the idea had only broken through the walls towering before it.

It's true that he was a major landowner in the community, with a lot at stake in protecting his investments. But those who know him best say he wasn't making decisions based on himself and his own interests.

"It was always about what's right, you know, doing what's right," said Kate Tietjen, Cole's daughter. "He always said that if Cheyenne is going to be a great community, we've got to have better landscaping, we've got to be more progressive in design standards."

When Dell Range Boulevard was being planned, Cole went to the city and advised that the road should not be a four-lane road, but eight lanes to accommodate for growth.

Cole loved Cheyenne, and from its drainage system to its aesthetics, he did what he could to make life better for the everyday people in the city.

"He was a big thinker," Cartwright said. "Traffic flow, landscape, everything. He was a big-picture guy, and I don't think that people realize that he was just watching out for their interests. He was watching the entire community's interests."

At times, he and the city didn't agree. When he put a project together, Cole did it his way and refused to budge, creating the image of someone difficult to work with in the eyes of some past city officials.

"We think that those that were critical of him didn't know him," Cartwright said. "It's really hard, because I think such a prominent person in this community, people can be very critical. There can be a lot of stories that aren't true."

It was because he thought ahead, sifted through contracts, making little changes for the greater good. His approach bled across different areas of his life, from work to vacation to building a sprinkler system at home. There was a right way and a wrong way to do everything.

His family argues that he simply saw the world in a different way than most, mentioning his amateur photography collection, filled with pictures of buildings, infrastructure and design. When the family would travel, be it to New York City or San Diego, he would admire the gutters and sidewalks.

No small thing was taken for granted.

"I'm a people watcher, and if I'm looking at people, he's looking at the building," his wife, Louise Cole, said. "If there's a Christmas display in big stores like Macy's, he's looking exactly how they did it, what they put in there. He's got it all memorized in his brain exactly how everything was done."

The same sentiment carries over to his human relationships. Before any business deal was made, he wanted to learn about the person he was working with. That means learning where they grew up or what their parents did, what hobbies they had, pulling information bit by bit until he knew them better.

Cole knew all there was to know about Cheyenne, living his entire life here and being affiliated with so many groups, he could run through the history of the city and its people off the top of his head. It would be difficult to get out of a conversation without him first quizzing the person with a good piece of trivia, of which he was a master.

"To him, life was a challenge, but it was fun," Louise Cole said. "He believed in God, and so that guided him. I don't know if he realized how much God was really guiding him, but he knew."

Anything he did, he would do to the fullest extent. No job was half done, even when it came to his personal life. Cole attended every athletic event, every concert, helped in every little way that he could with his children and grandchildren.

He could recite dates and times of events that occurred in Cheyenne over the past 50 years, or where exactly certain pipelines ran beneath the streets of downtown. It was when abilities like these began to slip that the family noticed dementia was taking greater control. His cognitive ability masked just how far along the condition really was.

When he died, the presence he held in his family's life was immediately deeply felt. They joke that it takes all three of them to pick up the responsibilities that he left.

What the family wants people to know is that he loved the community, loved Cheyenne, but more than anything else, loved his family. They miss his stories, his advice and his simply being there.

"Right now, putting stuff away or getting stuff out and thinking about stuff, I think 'Oh, I'll go ask Frank,'" Louise Cole said. "'I have all these questions I want to ask him, and I can't ask him.

"I miss him physically being here so I can talk to him."

A funeral service for Frank Cole will be held at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 16 at First United Methodist Church downtown.

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.