Written by JM (12/1973); Transcribed & Formatted by JS (06/2010)
Profile of a Life Member Joe Coles
Our fine Academy of Model Aeronautics was not always as healthy as it is now. In 1965, when AMA finances were in a serious deficit condition, a concerned modeler, Joe Coles, walked up to President Howard Johnson at the Nationals and handed him a check for $2000. A year later, Joe presented another $1000. No special recognition or publicity was involved. Special membership numbers then were unheard-of.
Why the unselfish gifts to AMA’s well-being? Let Joe answer in his own words: “The donation was given at a time when I felt the future of the Academy was in doubt. Consciously and subconsciously, we have all depended on the AMA to promote the hobby and the associated activities. It would have been a void that could not have been filled, had it failed. “I honestly believe that had it not been for model airplane building during the period of rebuilding a bankrupt business, I would have ended up in the booby hatch. “The donation was given not to obtain a Life membership (in fact I did not know lifetime memberships existed); it was given because I felt I owed something to the Academy for what it was trying to do to promote the hobby.”
A project engineer in the development of sewerage and water plants, Joe lives in Moorestown, New Jersey. Along with his wife, Janice, and four children (Charles, 21; Mary, 19; Nancy, 18; and Anne, 11) he enjoys Radio Control model sailboats, game fishing, and most of all – model airplanes.
How good a modeler is he? Joe won the Testors Trophy for best model finish at the National Contests in 1957, 1958, and 1961. Also, he was first in Control Line Scale at the 1961 Nats. For his contribution to the AMA, Joe Cole is now enshrined forever in its life member scroll and is permanently assigned the enviable membership number L-3, a number never ever to be reassigned to anyone. And more than any number can express- our undying thanks, Joe, for your thoughtfulness during AMA’s dark hour.
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