Stan Cole

Stan Cole was the only member of the US water polo team in München who had also played at both the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, and he also won a gold medal at the 1967 Pan American Games. He was on the swim team as a top butterfly sprinter at UCLA, winning the 1965 Pac-10 100 yd butterfly. Cole was elected to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1984, to the International Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1986, and was the first water polo player inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame in 1990.

While at UCLA Cole joined ROTC and was commissioned as a Naval Officer after his graduation. He did tours of Vietnam; Subic Bay in the Philippines; Hong Kong; and Yokosuka, Japan. He transferred to the Iwo Jima LPH with the ship making stops in Hawaii, Singapore and Okinawa. Cole was on board the Iwo Jima on 17 April 1970 when they picked up the Apollo 13 astronauts and capsule. He left the Navy as a Lieutenant to train for the 1972 Olympics.

Cole later worked in the construction industry for 45 years. He joined his father-in-law’s firm initially and then joined Ernest W. Hahn in regional mall development as a project manager. He later was vice-president of construction for Carver Development in Newport Beach, California before forming his own company, Cole Development, which built custom homes throughout San Diego County.