Patrick Dele Cole spent four years doing something rare: holding two prestigious posts at once. From 1969 to 1973, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a Fellow at King's College, Cambridge, at the same time. He also served as an Administrative Officer in the Political Department of the Cabinet Office during that same period.
That combination, an academic on two continents while also working inside government, tells you something about the kind of man Cole was. He did not seem to choose between the world of ideas and the world of power. He moved through both.
Cole, who lived from 1940 to 2026, left behind a career that this brief record only begins to sketch. The full shape of what he built, and what he believed, is a story worth sitting with.
Originally published by BusinessDay.