1968

James Stacy Coles became RC president.

James “Spike” Stacy Coles was born in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, in 1913. His father was the publisher of the local newspaper. Coles earned degrees from Mansfield State Teachers College (1934) and Columbia University (1936; with advanced degrees in 1939 and 1941).

Coles, a chemist and oceanographer, taught chemistry at the College of the City of New York (1936-1941); was an assistant professor of chemistry at Middlebury College (1941-1943); and was research supervisor at Underwater Explosives Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts during World War II. Beginning in 1946, he taught chemistry, and was acting dean at Brown University.

In 1952 he became president of Bowdoin College. During Coles’ tenure at Bowdoin, the student body, faculty, and campus grew dramatically. The 16-story Coles Tower building (one of the tallest buildings in Maine) was built by Coles as an educational experiment that brought virtually the entire senior class into a single residence hall and made a senior seminar part of each semester’s course offerings. Coles was chairman of the Maine Higher Education Advisory Committee (1965-1967) which helped establish the University of Maine System. He also co-authored “Physical Principles of Chemistry” (1964) with R.H. Cole.

In 1967, Coles left Bowdoin to become president of Research Corporation. During his tenure at the Foundation, its assets increased to $46 million from $11 million, in part through patent royalties. He oversaw projects for nutrition research and medical mycology. He retired in 1982, but remained as chairman of its executive committee until 1984.

Coles died in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 1996.