Summer 2016 Letters

Cole Bin history

I hope some of your readers will respond and fill in the blanks about George and Alice Brown. I looked in my notes and came up with almost nothing except that George Brown was the manager of the second Cole Bin, the one that opened on Oct. 10, 1947. Possibly, he also managed the original Cole Bin in the former Russell David Cole house at 419 Second St. NW.

A brief note on my Cole Bin card says that George Brown operated George’s Grill in a quonset hut behind his house from 1951 to 1953 and that it burned down in 1952, but was replaced within a week. I regret that I have no citation for this bit of history.

Charles Milhauser
Registrar and Professor
of Classics Emeritus
Tequesta, Florida

Cole Bin memories

It was with a great deal of interest that I read the fall 2016 issue of the Cornell Report. I arrived on campus in September 1946 and the pictures renewed fond memories. My memory after so many years is a little suspect, but I will share what I remember and hope that others can add their memories.

I think when I arrived Alice and George Brown had a coffee shop in a quonset facility east of campus. Shortly after that, they moved into a house and called it the Cole Bin. I spent way more time there than I should have. I believe that Harold Templeman ’58 is incorrect in suggesting that the picture purporting to be the Cole Bin is George’s Grill. I don’t ever remember that name. It is news to me that the college ever hired staff to run a facility called the Cole Bin. I am very fuzzy about this, but I vaguely remember that there was a fire at the Cole Bin. Does anybody remember that?

Richard “Wimp” Wimpress ’50
Woodbury, Minnesota

Remembering Robert Triplett

Dr. Triplett played with brilliance and taught with enthusiasm. He deserved the wide respect he received from both the music and non-music faculty at Cornell. To this day I remember his performance of Mozart’s f-minor fantasy, K 608, in King Chapel. I also enjoyed the privilege of singing in choirs for which he played. We have lost an enormous talent.

Jim Frederiksen ’68
Park Ridge, Illinois