Whiteford Russell Cole was an American businessman. He was the president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad from 1926 to 1934, and a director of many companies. During the railroad strike actions of 1921–1922, he threatened his workers with dismissal and loss of pensions. His mansion in Louisville, Kentucky is the official residence of the president of the University of Louisville.
Early life
Whiteford Russell Cole was born on January 14, 1874, in Nashville, Tennessee. His father, Edmund William Cole, was a Confederate veteran and railroad executive; his mother, Anna Russell, was a philanthropist. His maternal uncle, Whitefoord Russell, was a Confederate veteran, and his maternal great-uncle was a professor at the University of Georgia and Berlin University. Cole grew up at Colemere, a mansion in Nashville, with three half-siblings from his father's first marriage to a member of the McGavock family; his parents entertained often. Cole was educated at the Wallace University Prep School. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1894.
Career
Cole was appointed as a director of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway at the age of 26, in 1900. He had become its chairman by the outset of World War I, and he was appointed as its president in 1918. In 1919, he opposed Director General of Railroads William Gibbs McAdoo's proposal to nationalize railroads for five years, arguing that "debts would pile so high that it would be physically impossible for the roads to ever again revert to private ownership". In 1921–1922, when his railroad workers went on strike after their wages were lowered by 12 percent by the U.S. Railway Labor Board, Cole threatened them with dismissal and loss of their pensions. In retaliation, strikers went to his house on West End Avenue, and they "bombarded with bottles until its concrete porch was littered with glass". In 1923, Cole dedicated the Whitefoord Cole Park in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for use by residents even though it belonged to the company. Cole resigned in 1926. Cole was the president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad from 1926 to 1934. At the time of his appointment, B. C. Forbes, the founder of Forbes magazine, noted that it was unusual for a man of privileged upbringing to become the president of a railroad company. As it was the Great Depression, Cole lowered his workers' wages and took a pay cut. Cole was the president and general manager of the Napier Iron Works and vice president of the First Savings Bank & Trust Company and the Bransford Realty Company. He also served on the boards of directors of First and Fourth National Bank, Nashville Trust Company, the Western Railway of Alabama, the Monon Railroad, the Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company, the American Nashville Bank of Nashville, American Cyanamid, Fruit Growers Express and Fidelity & Columbia Trust Company. He was a member of the Association of American Railroads. Cole was a significant real estate investor in Sheffield, Alabama.
Cole married Mary Conner Bass, a direct descendant of Felix Grundy, in 1901. They had a son, Whitefoord Russell Cole, Jr., who married Helen Lane Moore, the daughter of State Historian and Archivist John Trotwood Moore and sister of poet Merrill Moore. They resided at 2122 West End Avenue, which was later repurposed as the Nashville Conservatory of Music. In 1926, they moved to 2515 Longest Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky. Cole was a member of the Nashville Golf and Country Club, the Pendennis Club, the Louisville Country Club, and the Salmagundi Club. Cole died of heart disease on November 17, 1934 on a train in Cave City, Kentucky. He was 60 years old. His funeral was held at the Christ Church Cathedral, and he was buried in Nashville. By the time of his death, he was worth an estimated $600,000. His estate was split between his wife and his son. Cole also bequeathed money to the Christ Church cathedrals in Nashville and Louisville. Cole Hall, a building on the Vanderbilt campus completed in 1949, was named in his honor. Additionally, his portrait hangs in Kirkland Hall, the administration building; it was donated by his son in 1958.
