Ken Cole P '12
The story of how Ken Cole P '12 decided to leave Kent Place in his estate plans is a story about the importance of education, the strength of the Kent Place community, and the ways in which we can honor those we have lost. Ken is the father of Grace Cole '12 and the husband of the late Jane Coil Cole, for many years a beloved KPS teacher and chair of the English department until she passed away in 2001. Ken chose to create a legacy gift "because of what Kent Place meant to my wife and because of the trajectory of my daughter's life."
Kent Place became a part of Ken's world in the 1980s when Jane accepted a position teaching in the English department. A number of years later, they enrolled their daughter, Grace, in the Primary School. Kent Place was deeply intertwined with their family life; they even lived on campus for a while.
Jane's aptitude as an educator resonated with her students. "She had the teaching gene," says Ken. "She thought there was nothing more important than teaching young women how to stand up in this society. She was always a great proponent of Northrop Frye, a Canadian literary critic, who said that in the liberal arts education something ought to be liberated. She lived by that. Education, as she conducted it, was a matter of liberation."
The importance of women's education was an abstract concept to Ken until it became very real: when he saw how a Kent Place education gave Grace the ability to advocate for herself, explore her interests, and grow academically.
"My wife passed away when she was chair of the English department," Ken says, "and I didn't know what was going to happen to my daughter, who was a student at the school. Kent Place decided to let Grace continue at the school for the rest of her academic career [she was six years old at the time]. That was a gift I could not walk away from."
As they navigated their grief and dealt with their profound loss, Ken cited a number of Kent Place faculty and administrators who were friends of Jane and watched out for Grace after she lost her mother. These friendships added tremendous value to their lives. "So that's why I have made it my business to support Kent Place every year, and I will do so after I'm gone," says Ken.
Years later, the education Grace received as a child and teenager still sustains her. It helped her grow into a confident adult who had the courage to move to South Korea after graduating from college. She is now fluent in French and Korean, works as a project manager for a digital content company, and is considering graduate school in international relations.
Ken and Jane met while standing on line in alphabetical order on their first day of college and started dating in the second semester of their junior year. They began their careers as professors at Drew University, where Jane was earning her PhD in English. Both Jane and Ken taught writing and literature at Drew. Jane was a gifted teacher of poetry, he recalls: "She could make poetry sing for most - not all - but almost every student. Not many people can do that these days."
Jane valued the opportunity to expand upon her own education through professional development. Whatever she learned, she passed it on to her students. While teaching at Kent Place, she received a summer professional-development award, which led to Jane's preparing the school's first-ever style manual.
Ken has worked in the nonprofit sector his whole life and sees the benefit of thinking through estate planning so that individuals can take care of their families and create a lasting impact through charitable contributions. With his legacy gift, Ken will help to grow the Jane Cole Master Teacher Fund, which was established in Jane's memory and provides professional development funds for faculty. He says, "I hope the program Jane once benefited from for professional development will benefit scores of others who can bring that education into the classroom to benefit students — because charity is at its best when it changes lives; because changing lives changes the world or, at least, one corner of the world."