Leonard A. Cole

Leonard A. Cole, DDS, Ph.D
September 1, 1933-September 18, 2022
Leonard A. Cole, writer, educator, and civic leader, passed away September 18 following a brief illness.
Cole, acclaimed author of 11 books on a variety of topics, including most recently, Chasing the Ghost
(World Scientific, 2021) which chronicled the life of his late cousin Fred Reines, co-winner of the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1995, for the discovery of the neutrino. The biography/memoir was a finalist for a
2022 Indie Book Award.
With an expertise in bioterrorism, Cole was a pioneer in the burgeoning field of terror medicine. In 2015
Cole became the founding director of the program on terror medicine and security at the Rutgers New
Jersey Medical School. He was also a longtime adjunct professor of political science at Rutgers
University-Newark.
A resident of Ridgewood, N.J. since 1971, Cole had a dental practice in Hawthorne, N.J., for 39 years
until 2000. His retirement from dentistry enabled him to devote more time to teaching and writing.
Cole was born on September 1, 1933 in Paterson, N.J., the only child of Morris and Rebecca. He grew up
in Paterson and the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan but returned to Paterson for high
school graduating in 1951 from Eastside High.
He began his undergraduate career at Indiana University in Bloomington and relished his time playing
clarinet in the marching band and competing in the inaugural Little 500 bicycle race.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1957.
That year he married the love of his life Ruth Gerber, a newly minted graduate of Temple University,
who then accompanied him during two years of military service with the U.S. Air Force in Japan. He and
Ruth, who survives him, were married for 65 years.
After his time in the Air Force, the couple moved to Berkeley, California, where Cole worked at a dental
office and completed his bachelor's degree in political science at the University of California-Berkeley.
He and his growing family moved back East in 1961 when he started his dental practice and eventually
enrolled part-time in a master's and then doctoral program at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D
in political science from Columbia in in 1970.
Having written extensively about biological weapons, including anthrax, prior to the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, Cole was a frequent commentator and contributor to news outlets from the New York Times
and the Washington Post to CNN and MSNBC after letters laced with the potentially lethal bacteria
began showing up in the U.S. mail later in 2001.
He had earlier exposed little-known details of the U.S. Army's dispersing of biological, radioactive, and
chemical agents on unsuspecting civilian populations across America in defense testing programs from
the 1950s through much of the 1980s, the basis of his book Clouds of Secrecy (Rowman & Littlefield,
1988). He testified numerous times before Congressional committees on topics related to biological
weaponry. And he was invited to give presentations to officials at the Department of Defense, the
Department of Energy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the former Office of
Technology Assessment.
A leader in the Jewish community, Cole served as chair of the Birthright Israel Committee of the Jewish
Federation of North America from 2006 to 2013. At the time of his death, he was a board member and
former chair of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a board member and former president of the Jewish
Federation of Northern New Jersey, and a board member of Rutgers Hillel.
In addition to his wife, Cole is survived by his children Wendy Cole of Oak Park, Ill.; Philip Cole (Rhoda
Alani) of Newton, Mass.; William Cole of Morristown, N.J.; and his six grandchildren Rachel, Charles,
Hannah, Matthew, Jaron, and Lucy.
A Zoom livestream of the funeral on Tuesday, September 20, noon ET will be available at: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83819529969?pwd=WXh3cFdFK1JMOERXTFdBOE84dlgvZz09
Meeting ID: 838 1952 9969
Passcode: cole
The family will be hosting two Zoom shiva gatherings on Wednesday, September 21 from 7-9pm ET/6-8
pm CT and Thursday, September 22 from 7-9pm ET/6-8pm CT. All are welcome to share remembrances
and stories.
Wednesday
Zoom link:
Meeting URL: https://partners.zoom.us/j/85090763025?from=addon
Meeting ID: 850 9076 3025
Thursday
Zoom link:
Meeting URL: https://partners.zoom.us/j/81600156163?from=addon
Meeting ID: 816 0015 6163
Donations in memory of Leonard A. Cole would be gratefully appreciated at:
Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey (jfnnj.org)
50 Eisenhower Drive
Paramus, N.J. 07652
Hadassah (Hadassah.org/donate)
300 Pleasant Valley Way
West Orange, N.J. 07052
Rutgers Hillel (Rutgershillel.org)
70 College Ave.
New Brunswick, N.J. 08901