Fall 2008 - Cumberland School of Law - Samford University

After years of dedicated service to students, alumni and community of Cumberland School of Law, the faculty and staff members highlighted
on these pages have decided to put away their alarm clocks and enjoy a much-anticipated retirement.They have forever touched
the lives of so many and have made a lasting impression on the halls of Cumberland School of Law.
The “Small Person” from Monroeville
Leaves a Legacy
Growing up in Monroeville, Ala.,
Charles “Bo” Cole ’66 enjoyed
an idyllic life hunting and fishing
at his grand-father’s place on the old road
to Mobile.That lifestyle was light-years
removed from his later professional career
and his travels to Great Britain, Japan,
Russia, Ukraine and Brazil.
Even in Monroeville, however, there
was something about Cole that attracted
the attention of local prominent people.
Harper Lee, another rural Monroe County
native 15 years older, would jog by his
house. Cole’s mother used to tell him
stories of Truman Capote, who would go
to the drugstore in the morning, read all
the magazines on the rack, and then leave.
Years later, Cole’s friend and
colleague, former Alabama Governor
Albert Brewer, asked Harper Lee if she
remembered Cole.The well-known author
of To Kill a Mockingbird smiled and said,
“Yes, I remember Bo Cole. He was a
small, tow-headed, red-headed person.”
Cole used to walk past Boo Radley’s
tree on his way home. He devoured
books, particularly those by Ernest
Hemingway and O. Henry. He majored in
business administration at Auburn
University. During his undergraduate
days, Cole worked at the Polytek
Shop, a ladies’ specialty shop, where
he learned not to have more
than two pair of shoes on the
floor if he wanted a sale.
For a time, he worked as
a manufacturer’s representative
and enjoyed
some success, but he
knew he wanted to
have professional
interests other than
industrial sales.
His uncle,
DuBose Cole,
encouraged him to
take the LSAT, and
Cole soon faced the
choice between
4
Cumberland School of Law, which had
recently relocated in Birmingham, or
Stetson University College of Law in
Deland, Fla. Because he wanted to practice
in Alabama, Cole chose Cumberland in a
“defining moment.”
Cole’s public life has revolved around
defining moments, including the law
school, where his introduction to the
world of ideas really began, and where his
intellectual passions matched the
profession.
“Law school defined me in the sense
of having an interest in excelling to the
fullest extent of my ability,” he said.“It was
a maturation process. I kept thinking that I
had to study and keep up. At the time, I
just wanted to do well enough to become
employed.”
Cole developed close friendships with
faculty members Claude Bankester and
Dean Arthur Weeks.They noticed Cole’s
acumen for the law and invited him to
join the faculty as soon as he graduated in
1966.Though he had worked at the
Birmingham firm of Porterfield & Scholl
during his studies and expected to return
after taking the bar, Cole joined the law
school faculty after a short time practicing
law, enjoying his ability to reflect on cases
that he would have had to rush through in
a trial setting.
For three summers, Cole went to
New York University to finish an LL.M. as
a faculty fellow, attending faculty functions
and receptions. As he studied the curriculum,
the seeds of his Master of
Comparative Law program at Cumberland
School of Law started to germinate.
In 1971, Howell T. Heflin, then chief
justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and
later a senator, appointed Cole to be
executive director of the Permanent Study