Rossetter G. (Rossetter Gleason) Cole

Born in Clyde, Michigan, on February 5, 1866, he studied at the University of Michigan and worked with musician and educator Calvin B. Cady. During his student years he wrote an early large-scale cantata, The Passing of Summer, and then went to Berlin to study composition with Max Bruch.

After returning to the United States in 1892, he taught and led music programs at Ripon College in Wisconsin and Grinnell College in Iowa. He later worked in Chicago as a composer, musician, writer on music, and composition teacher, and he was also connected with the MacDowell artist community through a number of residencies.

Rossetter G. Cole is remembered as a prolific American musical figure whose output included organ, piano, choral, orchestral, and chamber music. He died in Lake Bluff, Illinois, on May 18, 1952, and his papers are preserved in the Newberry Library.