Jim Cole, who made New Canaan a safer place, has died. Word was received Tuesday, Feb. 5.
Cole was among the first residents to volunteer for the Community Emergency Response Team. He and his wife Nancy Upton, went though the training. It was just the beginning of how they would shape the way New Canaan handled emergencies.
He spearheaded the emergency planning process and the establishment of an emergency operations center during a crisis. The organizational skills he learned on Wall Street followed him into a “retirement” in which he applied those lessons in an effort to keep residents safer and more informed during times of trouble.
Cole chaired the Fire Commission, then moved to the Police Commission in 2004. He left the Police Commission nine years later, in 2013.
He oversaw the entire process as Director of Emergency Preparedness for New Canaan.
Upton was a leader in both CERT and the New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
His contributions and friendship to the First Selectman, prompted Kevin Moynihan to initiate a moment of silence in his honor at the Board of Finance meeting Tuesday, Feb. 4.
An obituary for Cole will be posted as it is received.
Caption: Jim Cole, the Police Commission chairman, and then-interim Police Chief Leon Krolikowski talk during the Thursday, Aug. 8, school emergency drill at Saxe Middle School. (Joshua Fisher photo)
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