Paul Cole, Lewiston-Porter United Teachers
Paul Cole, one of NYSUT’s founding activists and executive director of the American Labor Studies Center, spearheaded the successful preservation efforts of the Kate Mullany House, establishing the home as a National Historic Site — one of the few that celebrates women’s contributions to the labor movement.
Mullany was a young Irish immigrant laundry worker who organized the first all-female labor union in 1864.
Prior to his turn at historic preservation, Cole was a high school social studies teacher for 23 years who developed a course on labor history and served as the former president of the Lewiston-Porter United Teachers. Cole has held numerous leadership positions within NYSUT and the American Federation of Teachers and currently serves as secretary-treasurer emeritus of the state AFL-CIO.
“Someone said to me once, ‘You don’t retire from something, you retire to something.’ And I think that’s what I’ve done with this project,” Cole said.
Cole worked diligently to assemble the funding and support necessary to turn the formerly blighted three-story building in downtown Troy into a fully functioning, restored historic site, with exhibits and a re-creation of Mullany’s living quarters. The site officially opened to the public in 2023.
The building is also home to the American Labor Studies Center, where Cole and other labor leaders will help teachers bring the labor movement into their classrooms.