Rex Cole

GEDCOM Note

"...young Rex secured such education as the local county schools afforded. When he was sixteen, he was already engaged in electrical contracting work, the beginning of four years spent in Canada as manufacturer's agent for lighting fixtures and equipment. Later, he was sales representative of the Sterling Bronze Company, and from 1909 to 1913 served them in a special capacity in New York. From 1913 until 1916 he was associated with Edward F. Caldwell and Company of New York. Dur- ing the next twp years, again in the service of the Sterling Bronze Company, Rex Cole developed Duplexalites, which embodied a new principle of lighting. Then he brnached out for himself; to ex- ploit this new idea of better lighting of high intensity in duplexalite fixtures for use in offices and homes, he formed a sales organization known as the Duplexalite Corporation, with headquarters at No. 18 East Fortieth Street, New York City. Subsequently he bought out his partners, and in 1918, with his keen foresight for profitable ventures, he made an arrangement with the National Lamp Works of the General Electric Company with offices at No. 6 West Forty-eightth Street. In 1922, Rex Cole effected a consolidation of the organization with the Edward Miller Company, an indepen- dent lighting fixture firm established in 1834 at Meriden, Connecticutt, and the Ivanhoe Glass Division of the General Electric Company. The combined organizations were named The Miller Company, with Rex Cole as president, and handled a national distribution of lighting fixtures for residential, commer- cial and industrial use as well as a substantial foreign business. Thus Mr. Cole became one of the foremost electrical lighting fixture merchandisers in this country.

In accordance with his consistent belief in advertising and publicity, he originated, in 1924, a nation-wide educational campaign, The Better Home Lighting Contest, in which cause he enlisted the sup-port of the National Electric Light Association. Several million essays on the subject of the better home lighting were written by school children in every part of the U S and Canada, and the first prize awarded was a fifteen thousand dollar house. The campaign was given an inestimable amount of publicity by the press of the country, and realized the widespread interest in better home lighting on which Mr. Cole had planned. On the heels of the successful operation, in 1925, an industrial campaign was launched by Rex Cole, and, with cooperation from the National Electric Light Association, was carried through to victory. At just about that time, the now standard lighting equipment for modern kitchens was evolved by Mr. Cole, when he originated and promoted better kitchen lighting equipment.

Rex Cole resigned as president of the Miller Company in March, 1927, to take over the metropolitan distribution of General Electric Refrigerators. He was quick to sense the tremendous possibilities inherent in electric refrigeration if properly exploited and under a franchise of the Electric Refrigera- tion Department of the General Electric Company, he organized Rex Cole, Inc., to cover the territory which embraced Greater New York and the surrounding territory within a radius of seventy-five miles with the exception of New Jersey. Company headquarters were first located at No. 551 Fifth Ave-nue, with a single display room at No. 7 East Forty-fifth Street. Then in rapid succession one show- room after another was opened throughout the territory as sales increased and the organization expanded.

The Rex Cole Building, No. 265 Fourth Avenue, was taken over in 1930 to house this growing con- cern. To the original line of refrigeration were added at intervals the General Electric Hotpoint Randge, Dishwasher, Water heater, Flatplate Ironer, Washing Machine, Sewing Machine and Vacuum Cleaner. Incorporating the idea of proper refrigeration for the home in a bigger scheme, Rex Cole has now become an ardent sponsor of the all-electric kitchen idea, and a high spot in his handsome main showroom is the model electric kitchen.

Rex Cole has a host of friends in business, social and club circles. He is a member of the Lotus Club, The Engineers' Club, North Hempstead Country Club, Knollwood Country Club, New York Yacht Club, New York Athletic Club, Manhattan Club and others. While a golfer of some ability (Connie Crumbliss Farrar has a picture of him playing golf with Bobby Jones (designer of the Masters in Augusta, Georgia), his cheif diversion is importing and breeding pedigreed Norwegian Elkhounds, of which he has a score or more at his kennels in Westchester. With practical philanthrophy, Mr. Cole recently donated to the Fifth Avenue Hospital two radiotherm machines, large and small, both developed by the General Electric Company for aiding in the cure of arthritis." ..."Mr. and Mrs. Cole reside at 300 Central Park West, New York City, and at Bedford Village." -Family data.