Wallace Cole | Obituary | Mankato Free Press

REV. WALLY COLE
The Rev. Wallace Bartz Cole, 94, passed away on January 16, 2023 in Prescott, AZ of natural causes. He was born to Garn and Laura Cole in Lake Crystal, MN on May 30, 1928. He graduated from Lake Crystal High School as valedictorian of his class. In his teen years he served his country in World War II in the Minnesota State Guard, and later in the United States Army Reserve for three years. He was employed by the U.S. Postal Service in Lake Crystal for five years.
Wally was a boy scout, and assistant scoutmaster, and a boy scout council member. He was awarded the Brotherhood Honor by the Boy Scout Order of the Arrow. He enrolled at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1950, spent a summer working at Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, another summer as a tour bus driver at Glacier Park, Montana, and graduated from St. Olaf with a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude, with majors in history and German language. Throughout his lifetime he enjoyed studying in six languages.
Wally married the love of his life, Fern D. Olson, in 1955, a year after beginning studies in Christian ministry at Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, MN. He and Fern spent a year in San Diego, CA where he did an internship study at College Lutheran Church. Wally graduated from Luther with a Master of Divinity degree and was ordained into the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, a predecessor body of the present Evangelical Lutheran Church in America….