Born in Clay Center in 1898, Warren Henry Cole was a surgeon known for his treatments for surgical cancer patients. He is best known for co-developing the process of visualizing the gallbladder during X-rays, a technique he founded by using contrast media. By 1924, the technique was used to diagnose gallbladder disease. He received worldwide attention, developing the protocol as a first-year medical student. 

Later in his career, he helped pioneer chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer patients. 

Cole attended Clay Center schools and graduated from Clay County High School in 1914 when he was 15 years old. The class consisted of 67 other graduates in five graduation tracks, including “normal” and “commercial”. Cole pursued the Collegiate Course. 

Cole earned his bachelor’s degree from KU, then his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis just two years later, in 1920. In 1919, he helped install a chemical laboratory in El Dorado, KS’s new hospital. At that time, he was listed in the local newspaper as “Dr.” 

He then went to Baltimore’s Bayview Hospital as an intern before returning to Washington University, where he served as a faculty member. 

He also served as a surgeon at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. By 1936, he left to teach at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he remained for three decades. 

While in this role, he noted that cancer cells could enter the bloodstream during surgery. This is when he and other doctors began developing chemotherapy and radiation as a treatment in 1954. Throughout his career, he served as the president of 12 major medical societies, including the American College of Surgeons and the American Cancer Society from 1959 to 1960.

He was married to Clara Lund, who worked as an interior designer for Marshall Fields.

Cole’s Dad, George, moved to Clay County’s Bloom Township in 1881 at the age of 25. He purchased a farm nearly six miles northwest of Clay Center. He married Sophia Tolin a decade later, and the pair had five sons. Warren was second from the youngest. In 1904, Sophia died. George remarried seven years later in 1911 to Mary Dimity. They remained at the farm until 1915, selling and moving into a new home in the 400 block of Blunt Street. It still stands today. 

George died in 1937, two months after suffering a paralytic stroke. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. 

Dr. Cole is said to have kept in touch with his students up until the day of his death in 1990. He passed at his home in Asheville, NC at 91 years old. He retired to the state in 1967. Clara died five years later and is buried alongside Dr. Cole. 

Research by Susan Hammond.