Bill Cole

Our deeply loved Bill Cole has gone home to be with the Lord. Bill was born on June 12, 1949, in San Bernardino, California, and passed away in Sebastopol on November 27, 2020, with his beloved son and daughter at his side, holding both of his hands.

Bill was a consummate volunteer, always seeking where he could be of service. A lifelong devout Catholic, he was a member of St. Sebastian’s Church and a Board Member of St. Vincent de Paul of Sonoma County. His devotion to the good works of St. Vincent de Paul was unparalleled, as he strove to serve the neediest among us, and volunteered from top to bottom at SVDP, refusing no job no matter how menial from handing out food to serving on the Board. Beginning in 1995, at the urging of his then-teenage son and nephew, Bill was a founding officer of the West County Skatepark Organization. He was an advocate, fundraiser, organizer and lobbyist until the Laguna Skategarden (aka the Sebastopol Skatepark) was built, whereupon he continued as a park and garden volunteer until his final weeks on earth. Not just a stack of membership cards, he was an active and beloved member with the Sebastopol Fuchsia Friends, Santa Rosa Moose Lodge, The Autumn Leaves, The Young Men’s Institute, and his Bocce team, the Sebastopol Rollers. He took pride in coordinating and cooking massive meals for hundreds of people for his various groups’ events.

Bill graduated from Yuba City High School, and majored in mathematics at the University of San Francisco. He was Chairman of the University’s Special Events Committee and was responsible for bringing well known speakers and celebrities to campus. He had a distinguished career in hospital administration in San Francisco before settling in Sonoma County, where he had a 35 year career in real estate, most recently with Better Homes and Gardens. He trained and mentored many budding real estate agents. Nothing gave him more joy than finding just the right buyer, seller and property for his clients. He helped many people buy their very first home. That was Bill Cole; making everyone around him feel right at home.

You couldn’t talk to Bill for more than ten minutes without learning how proud he was of his daughter, Kristina, and son Timothy, who survive him. Always encouraging his kids to do more than school, he followed Kristina’s singer-songwriter career and enjoyed his trips to Oakland to cheer on the Oakland A’s with Timothy. He will watch with joy from Heaven when his daughter Kristina marries her fiancée Beth Munger of San Francisco in 2021.

Bill is survived by Kristina of San Francisco and Timothy of Oakland. His brother Kenneth D. Cole, Jr. and sisters Rose Mary Clune, Sharon Burke, Carol Mitchel and Susan Cole also survive. Preceded in death by brother Glenn Edward and parents Ken and Mary Cole. He was Uncle Bill to seventeen nieces and nephews who loved him. 

Donations in his memory may be made to St. Vincent de Paul of Sonoma County or St. Sebastian’s Church in Sebastopol.