Lasting Memories

Cole Henry Richmond
1924-Oct. 12, 2006
Palo Alto, California

Cole Henry Richmond, long active in Palo Alto civic and church affairs, died Oct. 12 at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital after a three-year battle with cancer and diabetes. He was 82.

He was born in Kansas City, Mo. He met his wife, Doris, in 1942 in Los Angeles, where she was working on an assembly line for Northamerican Aviation and he was the son of a next door neighbor -- he had just returned from a tour of duty in the war. They were married in 1947, moved briefly to San Francisco but soon relocated to Palo Alto. "On a weekend trip to the Peninsula, the minute I saw all those eucalyptus trees, I said, 'This is it, this is my home.' I loved the land," Doris recalled in a 1997 Palo Alto Weekly article. They lived with friends until they could buy a lot and build their house on Chestnut Avenue. The couple in the 1960s founded the Chestnut-Wilton Homeowners Association (which later merged into the Ventura Neighborhood Association) to represent the small, mixed-race residential area just south of Oregon Expressway and between El Camino Real and the Caltrain tracks. He served on Palo Alto's first Human Relations Commission in the 1960s and was active in more than a dozen community organizations over the years. He ran for City Council in 1969 and fought to preserve and enhance a small community park in his neighborhood -- the Palo Alto Times ran a photo of him at the park with his daughter, Millicent, playing in the sand.

He served as president of the Palo Alto-Stanford NAACP chapter from 1972 to 1974, and he and Doris were longtime members of the Palo Alto Historical Association.

They were the oldest couple in the University AME Zion Church in Palo Alto, with which they had been affiliated for 50 years.

He retired in 1989 as a graphic artist designing technical manuals for the aeronautics industry. He also designed the instrument panel for the Stealth bomber.

Doris, who retired in 1992 after many years with the Palo Alto library system, said Cole's extensive involvement in the community and his unsuccessful run for council was due to his love for Palo Alto and belief he could be helpful in anything that came up.

He was active with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and he and Doris both were active in the World War II stories drama group at Foothill College. He served in the Pacific with the U.S. Navy and was involved in eight major battles.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Doris Richmond of Palo Alto; two children, Michael Richmond of Stockton and Kevin Richmond of Palo Alto, and by three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. His daughter, Millicent, of Palo Alto, died in 2002.