Old Fashioned
4th of July
2009 Parade Grand Marshall
Clifford Cole
Each year the Friends of Haines bestow the honor of Grand Marshall on an outstanding community member who has participated in volunteer activities in the Haines Community over the years. Our 2009 Parade Grand Marshall is Clifford Cole.
Clifford was born to Daniel Clifford and Gladys Elna Withers Cole in 1950. He grew up in Haines and attended Haines Elementary School and graduated from Baker High School in 1969. Clifford married his wife, Debbie Hurd Cole, in 1985.
Clifford has been a self employed auto mechanic and business owner in Haines for 40 years. In 1961 his parents began operating a Standard Oil gas station in Haines and Clifford worked with his father in the repair shop and helped his mother pump gas. When his father became ill, Clifford decided to work full time in the business after high school graduation. In 1974 he purchased the business from his parents. A large truck shop was added in 1980 when Clifford formed a partnership with his brother Larry Cole to form Cole Brothers American Service. Clifford had been taught by his parents that they were in business to serve other people first. Over the years, Clifford always considered his customers to be part of his family.
Clifford was appointed Fire Chief by the Haines City Council in 1974. During his 20 years of unpaid service as Fire Chief, Clifford established defined boundaries for the rural district and worked with the Haines City Council, the Rural Fire Association Board of Directors, and the volunteer firemen to obtain lower fire insurance ratings for the district. He formed a trained E.M.T. unit and developed a fire prevention curriculum for the Haines and Brooklyn Elementary Schools. Under his direction, the Haines Fire Department and Rural Protection Association became the most respected volunteer organization in the Northeast Oregon Fire Association.
For his volunteer work with inmates at the Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City, Clifford received the Citizen of the Year award from the Oregon Department of Corrections in 2004, 2005 and 2007. He received the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2008. This year, Clifford has embarked on new career in a full time ministry at the Northeast Oregon Compassion Center of the Baker City Church of the Nazarene.
Clifford Cole has devoted both his business and his personal life to the service of others. Please join us in honoring this special person on our nation's Independence Day at the Haines parade on July 4th 2009.