Alfred O.C. Cole was born in 1925 and was the youngest son of Dr. C.E. Cooper Cole and Sarah Renwick Tuckett. He had three brothers and one sister, and was married to Jean Murray Cole. They had six children. Cole was an avid researcher and historian. He played a major role in the life and history of Trent University, as Registrar from 1966 to 1987, and as a member of the Department of History. He was a RCAF pilot during World War II, a political reporter for Toronto's Daily Star and Globe and Mail, and he served as an executive assistant in the Ontario Ministry of Public Works at Queen's Park in Toronto. He wrote articles, and books such as A Victorian Snapshot and Trent: The Making of a University, 1957-1987, both published in 1992. He and his wife, Jean, shared the editorship of a number of books including The Illustrated Historical Atlas of Peterborough which was published in 1975 and Kawartha Heritage, published in 1981. Together Jean and Alfred had six children of which one has followed into their literary footsteps. Alfred O.C. Cole died on October 20th, 1996.