Jack Cole

Who was Jack Cole?

Jack Ridnour Cole was an American entrepreneur and businessman who used early computer technology to create "crisscross directories", which are used to sort millions of people by street address. The "Blue Book" is the original criss cross reference directory. These directories "quickly became a staple of public library reference shelves" as well as of valuable use to both business and government, including detectives, direct marketers, police stations, reporters, insurance agents, and small business owners.

Jack Cole earned an undergraduate degree in business from the University of Nebraska and went to work for IBM as a sales representative in Dallas. In 1947 Mr. Cole began publishing the Cole Directory, a set of reverse guides to various United States cities which listed a city’s residents by address and by telephone number by using IBM's punchcards. He hired typists to keyboard the entire Dallas telephone book onto punch cards. Directories for other cities soon followed, with Mr. Cole drawing on census records, tax rolls and other data to supplement the information in the phone book. Cole Directories, which now cover about 200 cities, are published in print and digital forms by the MetroGroup Corporation of Lincoln, Nebraska.