[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 15, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1020
 
 A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE HONORABLE ALBERT McDONALD COLE, A FORMER MEMBER 
                              OF CONGRESS

  (Mr. ROBERTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. Speaker, with sadness I rise to call attention to 
the death of a former member of the House of Representatives, Albert 
McDonald Cole, who represented the First District of Kansas for four 
terms from 1945 to 1953.
  He is remembered for a single act of courage that ended his political 
career, but saved countless thousands of lives last spring as 
devastating floods hit Kansas and the Midwest.
  In 1952, Mr. Cole voted in favor of the authorization to build Tuttle 
Creek Dam and Reservoir north of Manhattan in his district. Because 
that reservoir displaced hundreds of families and inundated thousands 
of acres of prime farmland, it was a controversial project. Mr. Cole 
initially opposed the dam, then changed his mind after the damaging 
floods of 1951. ``I saw the terrible destruction and I just decided I 
could not oppose it any longer. So I changed my vote, much to the 
dismay of many of my friends, Mr. Cole recalled recently.''
  Opponents rallied under the banner ``Big Dam Foolishness'' and voted 
Mr. Cole out of office in 1952. He never regretted the vote. And last 
spring, as the dam moderated flooding from Manhattan, KS, to Kansans 
City, MO, Kansans were thankful for Mr. Cole's courage. There is no 
question the 1993 flooding would have cost much more in lives lost and 
in property damage if Tuttle Creek Dam had not been built.
  All of us here today would do well to pause and reflect on Mr. Cole's 
willingness to do what was right, event at the expense of his political 
career.
  Mr. Cole was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as National 
Administrator of the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency, the 
predecessor agency to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 
He later served as president of Reynolds Metals Development Corp. and 
as a Washington attorney.
  Mr. Cole, who was 92, is survived by his wife, Emily, two children, 
six grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren.

                     [From the Globe, June 7, 1994]

            Former First District Representative Dead at 92

       Topeka.--Albert McDonald Cole, who represented the 1st 
     District of Kansas in Congress for four terms in 1945-53, has 
     died in a Washington D.C., hospital, a relative reported on 
     Monday.
       Cole, who was 92, died in George Washington University 
     Hospital Sunday night. He was hospitalized on Saturday, said 
     Marsha Cole Saville, a niece who lives in Topeka.
       His body had been donated to the hospital for research, and 
     no services were planned, she said.
       Cole was born Oct. 13, 1901, at Moberly, Mo. The son of a 
     Baptist minister, the family lived in several Kansas 
     communities, and he graduated from Sabetha High School.
       He attended Washburn University and earned his law degree 
     from the University of Chicago in the 1920s.
       He practiced law in Holton and was Jackson County attorney 
     before serving one term in the state Senate, 1941-45.
       A Republican, he won election to the U.S. House in 1944 and 
     served until January 1953, when former President Dwight 
     Eisenhower appointed him national administrator of the 
     federal Housing and Home Finance Agency, the predecessor 
     agency to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
       He held that post until 1959, then was president of 
     Reynolds Metals Development Corp. in Washington for eight 
     years.
       He had worked as a lawyer in Washington from 1968 until his 
     retirement in 1990.
       He married the former Emily Corbin of Kansas City, MO., in 
     November 1927, and she survives. Other survivors include a 
     son, Will E. Cole of Albuquerque; a daughter, Kitty Kaul of 
     Tyler, Tex., six grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

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