Carol Ann Cole

Carol Ann Cole of Pennington passed on Thursday, March 12th after battling severe intestinal bleeding. The daughter of John and Francis Tempone of Roslindale, Massachusetts, she is survived by her husband of 58 years, Graham Cole, her two sons, Joshua and Jamieson, and her grandsons, Christian and Liam. Her sister, Eleanor, predeceased her.

Carol graduated from Michigan State University in 1965 and earned a master’s degree in urban planning from Rutgers University. At different times in her life, she worked for Sterling Institute of Boston, taught high school history in Kansas, and held a major administrative role at the Child Care Connection in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Given her keen interest in politics and history, she was an active member of the League of Women’s Voters in Lawrenceville and took great interest in municipal government, serving on various committees in both Lawrenceville and Simsbury, Connecticut and on Democratic party committees in Pennington. During her husband’s tenure as Headmaster at Westminster School in Simsbury, she both worked in the library and was the quintessential Head’s spouse. On the Cole’s return to Lawrenceville for retirement in 2010, she helped in the library at the Lawrenceville School where they had worked for 20 years.

A lifelong, devoted Boston Red Sox fan (although, believe it or not, later in life, she grew fond of the Mets), Carol loved hiking, bike tours, quilting, reading when time allowed, and her daily exercise regimen. She took special joy in being “Nonna” to her grandsons and always spoke with special fondness of the extended family with whom she grew up. Though she could question the Catholic church’s actions, she almost never missed Saturday mass; it was an important part of her life.

But most of all, she was a wonderful person-- kind, thoughtful, sensitive, helpful, loyal, loving--always thinking of others.

A mass will be held on Friday, March 20th at 10:30 AM at St. James church at 115 East Delaware Avenue in Pennington, New Jersey and a reception at the Abbott Dining Hall on the Lawrenceville School campus at 12:30 PM. A burial service in the Lawrenceville cemetery will take place for family members only after the mass.