For the week of August 29 - September 4, 2001

Community bids 
Coles farewell

Two-term Ketchum mayor 
laid to rest in Gooding

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Guy Coles
1924-2001

In the city of his birth named for one of his Idaho pioneer ancestors, Ketchum Mayor Guy P. Coles was buried Saturday afternoon in the Elmwood Cemetery in Gooding.

He was laid to rest next to his wife of 40 years, Betty. The family burial plot also is shared by Coles’ great grandfather, Sen. Frank R. Gooding, for whom the south-central Idaho town of Gooding is named.

The grave-side funeral followed a Friday memorial service at the American Legion Hall in Ketchum, in which family, friends and colleagues gathered to bid Coles’ farewell and to celebrate a life well-lived.

Two-term Mayor Coles, whose body was found Aug. 21 at his Ketchum home, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 77.

“Those who were close to my Dad knew how his health was getting worse, the past two years, especially,” Coles son, Kelly, said at the well-attended Ketchum memorial service.

“His quality of life was very poor. He put on a great front in public for the past years. 

“It’s obvious that his suffering became too much to bear. My dad had a full life, and I’m very proud of him.”

Coles was born May 23, 1924, on the second floor of the Old Lincoln Inn Hotel in Gooding, the first son of Leslie and Louise Coles. 

During his formative years he lived in a number of western states as his father was transferred to different towns by the Western Union Telegraph Co. And, like many of his generation, Coles joined the U.S. Army during World War II. He was only 18 when he enlisted in 1942, and was assigned duty as a B-24 flight engineer gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corps. 

Following his military service, Coles worked as a justice of the peace and deputy sheriff for Gooding County, chief of security for Sun Valley Co., and a polygraph examiner and investigator before turning to politics. He was elected to the Ketchum City Council in 1989. Four years later he was appointed mayor, and in November 1993 was elected to the first of two terms as mayor. 

He is survived by his son, Kelly Coles, daughter-in-law, Jill, two grandchildren, Makenzie, 7, and Cassidy, 4, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife, Betty, parents and only brother, Bob Coles, of Portland, Ore.
Guy Coles’ full life was the focus of the memorial service at the American Legion Hall in Ketchum as friends dusted off old stories and shared them.

“I came here, since Guy is no longer with us, to set the record straight,” Sun Valley Co. General Manager Wally Huffman said. “I guess Guy has the distinction of being the only guy to successfully fire me from Sun Valley Co.”

Huffman said Coles was working as head of security for Sun Valley when he caught him in a girl’s dorm after he had been drinking and playing hearts in the Sun Valley Inn lobby. Huffman, then working as a dish washer, made a habit of drinking cheap wine mixed with 7-Up in the Inn lobby, he said.

“I know to this day, I’m sure in my heart, that Guy Coles followed me every night after I left the Inn lobby and my hearts game until he was able to follow me into the Idaho dorm and catch me in a girl’s room. And for that, I got fired and was given 24 hours to get out of the dorms and out of Sun Valley,” Huffman said.

Huffman added that it is because Coles fired him that he re-evaluated his conduct and returned to Sun Valley to begin climbing the corporate ladder to eventually become the resort’s general manager.

“He challenged me to come back and wipe that blight off my record,” Huffman said. “I owe it all to Guy, and I appreciate him for giving me that opportunity of tough love.”

Kelly Coles, reminiscing about his youth and Little League Baseball, told stories about what great parents his father and mother were. 

“They came to my games, all of my games. Not just home games, all away games. And not just baseball games. Every basketball game, every football game and every school tennis match. 

“And this didn’t stop after I graduated from high school. They came to every men’s softball game.

“Guy and Betty were a fixture at Atkinson Park. If my team was playing, everyone knew that Guy and Betty would be sitting on the sidelines in their lawn chairs, be it Atkinson Park or Hagerman.

“Makenzie, my 7-year-old daughter, asked me on the way up here this week if grandpa will still be mayor. In my mind, he will.”

While speakers shared happy times and laughter, the ceremony also was an opportunity to mourn the mayor.

Ketchum City Councilman Randy Hall, occasionally choking back tears, said he is grateful that Mayor Coles appointed him to both the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission and, later, to the Ketchum City Council “at a time when I didn’t have much faith in myself.”

“But it changed my life, and for that kindness, there are no words,” Hall said. “You can’t talk about our strong sense of community on one hand and on the other, not talk about the man who, for so many years, has been the leader of this community.

“Here we are all together to say goodbye to a person who has been in this community for a very long time and to remember one of our own, a ceremony that some might find tragic, but a ceremony that you could, if you choose, to celebrate. After all, we all have a beginning. We all have an ending, and everything in the middle is what we call life.”

The Rev. Brian Baker summarized in prayer:

“With warmth in our hearts, we gather to celebrate many years of a life well-lived. With sadness in our hearts, we gather to grieve the departure of a friend. And with hope in our hearts, we commend Guy’s soul into your tender, loving arms. Amen.”

At the grave-side service in Gooding, Kelly Coles was presented an American flag and military honors for his father concluded with a three-shot volley by the David Ketchum Post 115 American Legion Honor Guard. 

“Thanks, Guy, for all the wonderful memories,” Ketchum City Administrator Jim Jaquet said. “We will miss you greatly.”

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