Sheldon W. Cole, HHS Hall of Fame Inductee

From the Havre de Grace High School Hall of Fame Committee:

Sheldon W. Cole, a humanitarian, educator, consultant, businessman, writer, and diplomat, was born March 13, 1926 in Havre de Grace, MD.  After graduation, Sheldon earned a B.A. Degree from Princess Anne College, now known as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and a M.A. Degree from New York University of New York City.  In addition, Sheldon completed post graduate studies at UCLA and the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, D.C.  Sheldon served as Chairman of the Industrial Arts Teacher Education Department at Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, Florida.
He joined the Foreign Service in 1956 and worked in and out of Washington for nearly 33 years.  He and his wife were posted to Cameroon in West Africa where he served as Technical Advisor to the government’s Teacher Training College in Kumba.  Sheldon and Leona remained in West Africa for eight years.  His last assignment in Cameroon was in Buea where he served as the Principal of Ombe Technical College.  Later, they were transferred to Enugu, Nigeria.  During his tenure with the Foreign Service, he was posted to Swaziland and later to Malawi where he was Mission Director just prior to his retirement in 1985.  Sheldon’s professional associations were with the Center for Information Dissemination on Africa, Coker-Smith International Associates, Inc., NAFEO, African American Institute, The Eye Foundation, Agency for International Development and VISTA.  He was elected to be a Board Member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.  Sheldon has also received the Meritorious Honor Award of the Agency for International Development (AID), the Southern RegionalOutstanding  Man Award from Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and an Outstanding Service Award from the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education ( NAFEO).
As an author, Sheldon’s writings include African History, Artifacts and Culture; Art Metal – The Fundamentals of Metalcraft and teacher aids and text books for the Teacher Training Center in Kumba and the Ombe Technical College in Buea, Cameroon.  He also co-authored an exploratory case study of the collaboration between teachers of English as a second language and bilingual programs.