Industrialist? CEO? Humanitarian?

October 16, the University honored Peter C. Role, BBA '63, Business and Finance, as the 1998 winner of the Idaho State University Distinguished Alumnus Award. This is ISU's highest award, and it recognizes exemplary professional and/or personal contributions resulting in national or international visibility. Alumni, faculty, students, and other friends and supporters of ISU joined President and Mrs. Richard L. Bowen for a pleasant and memorable dinner evening to recognize Kole. This traditional Homecoming activity also honored the winners of the William J. Bartz and Idaho State University Achievement Awards. In response to President Bowen's award presentation, Role shared with the audience his appreciation and highlights of his personal and business background. His success serves as an outstanding example of the rewards of commitment and ethics the College tries to instill in its graduates. Nancy Kole, a retired teacher, accompanied her husband to the dinner and other Homecoming festivities. Many of those attending enjoyed having a chance to talk with her at the preceding reception as well as during dinner. Her warm and friendly demeanor complements Kole's sincere desire "to give something back" for all the good he has received. Role continues generous contributions to the College of Business through funding four scholarships. He endowed the Frank Seelye-Peter C. Kole Scholarship with a gift of $50,000. This scholarship honors former College of Business Dean Seelye and is awarded to a non-traditional student in the College with preference given to children of single parents. He created the Klime and Athina Kole Memorial Scholarship with another gift of $50,000; it is awarded under the same criteria as the Seelye-Kole Scholarship. Kole also created the Peter C. Kole Scholarship with a gift of $50,000; this scholarship is awarded to a student in the College. After Kole's Homecoming visit, he provided another $50,000 scholarship for College majors in the CIS program. This generosity and concern for others mirrors Kole's contribution to his community in general. His parents brought him from Albania to the U. S. when he was one year old. After returning to his native country for the first time in 1990, Kole spearheaded a successful drive to obtain and ship books to Albania's elementary and high schools and universities. As chair of book collections for the New England Albanian Relief Organization he helped establish an American open-stack library of more than 300,000 volumes in his hometown of Pogradec. Kole's business success has enabled him to be a benefactor to so may less fortunate than he is. His company, Paramount Metal Products comprises five divisions that employ 300 people in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1992, the company won Cleveland's Community Improvement Award for its efforts to "enhance local neighborhoods through reinvestment, job creation, and other improvements in the community. Cleveland native, Dean William A. Stratton, first had the opportunity to visit Kole at his business on the near west side of Cleveland in June 1997, while taking a break from a professional meeting. In describing his visit, Stratton says, “On display in the reception area of Kole’s Paramount Metal Products companies – he owns and manages several different enterprises – are a number of awards he has won for fostering economic development in one of the older, more economically depressed areas of Cleveland’s inner city. Kole runs a clean, efficient operation with few frills; but he treats his employees well. Four of the five original employees in the first business Kole stated are still with his company, and the fifth just recently retired. Stratton notes, “in addition to his library project in his home country of Albania, Peter is talking to experts in Idaho about the potential for raising trout there as a means of helping his many relatives attain a better livelihood. The College of Business is very proud to claim Peter as one of our graduates. He is most worthy of being named Distinguished Alumnus."