COLE, John N(elson) 1923-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born February 26, 1923, in New York, NY; died of cancer January 8, 2003, in Brunswick, ME. Environmentalist, journalist, and author. When Cole established the weekly Maine Times with partner Peter Cox in 1968, he introduced a new alternative to newspaper readers across the state. Cole sidestepped the conventional headlines of the day to focus his critical and often spirited attention on less-publicized issues. He wrote about local and state government and other regional matters, with a special concentration on the environment. A fisher and outdoor enthusiast himself, Cole took his readers into the nooks and crannies of the rugged coastline of Maine, to the state's parklands, and along its interior waterways. Cole had worked as a commercial fisher in his home state of New York; in Maine he honed his journalistic skills as the editor of the York Country Coast Star and, until 1968, the Bath-Brunswick Times Record. He also wrote columns for the Boston Globe and Newsday and contributed to several national magazines. Cole's environmental activities included membership in the New England Regional Energy Council and the Maine National Resources Council, and he held board positions with the Media Access Project and the Allagash Group. Cole's advocacy earned him a conservation award from the magazine Country Life and the Environmental Achievement Award of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His journalistic honors include the Yankee Quill Award of the New England Academy of Journalists. Cole wrote more than a dozen books on the natural world and his experiences therein. These include Striper: The Story of Fish and Man, Sun Reflections: Images for the New Solar Age, Fish of My Years, and Life List: Remembering the Birds of My Years. In 1998 he published Maine Trivia.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

New York Times, January 10, 2003, p. A23.

Washington Post, January 11, 2003, p. B7.