Michael Benjamin Ellis Coles

Michael Ellis “Mike” Coles, 77, passed away peacefully on August 19, 2024, at Boca Raton Regional Hospital after a brief illness.

Born October 15, 1946, in Washington, DC, he was predeceased by his mother, Mary Schulman Pullman, and stepfather Samuel M. Pullman, and his father, W.S. Coles. He grew up in Oxon Hill, MD and graduated from Oxon Hill High School. He went on to graduate from Strayer Junior College in Washington, DC and received his BBA degree from Drake College in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Mike had a successful 25-year career with IBM which took him to several states. He worked in New Jersey for 2 years, which was interrupted when he enlisted in the US Navy during the Vietnam War, working stateside in the Navy Payroll Office in DC. Shortly after his discharge, he married his wife of 50-years, Lisa Stevens Coles, and moved to Houston, TX where he was a systems engineer for IBM’s Federal Systems Division at NASA. One of the highlights of his career there was being part of the programming team that designed the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) that is still being used on Space Shuttles. He also worked in the Marketing Department in Systems Support, before transferring to IBM’s Gaithersburg, MD office in 1993. He took early retirement the following year and later worked for several tech companies in the DC area and was a member of the team that established the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Information System (IAFIS) in Clarksburg, WV for the FBI. He semi-retired in the early 2000’s and worked as a chauffeur and enjoyed sharing his knowledge of DC streets and environs with his customers. While living in Middletown, MD, he enjoyed serving as a Frederick County Election Judge and as an Alpaca Show Superintendent for the Great Frederick Fair.

He and Lisa retired to Boca Raton in February 2014 and despite the many health challenges he faced, enjoyed listening to his vast Motown CD collection, and collecting cars, especially his Calloway conversion Corvettes and a 1959 red Edsel Corsair Convertible. He was also an avid model railroad collector/enthusiast and belonged to numerous train and car clubs in the cities in which he lived. He was also a lifetime member of American Legion Post #277 in Boca Raton.

In addition to his widow, he is survived by two daughters: Jennifer Lynne Coles (wife Dayna Morgan),  and Courtney Anne Coles; sister, Karen Coles Scott; sister-in-law, Kate Murfitt; brother-in-law, Mark Stevens; nephew, Geoffrey Murfitt; nieces, Alissa Murfitt and Tiffany Stevens, as well as numerous aunts and cousins. He was pre-deceased by a sister, Bonita Ellen Coles.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, September 28, 2024, at 10 am, at First United Methodist Church, 625 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton, FL. Inurnment will follow at a National Cemetery at a later date.

The family extends its thanks to his many doctors, nurses and other staff members at Boca Raton Regional Hospital who cared for him and for the family during the last two weeks of his life.
 

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the American Kidney Fund, http://www.give.kidney.org  or to the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League, http://www.peggyadams.org/help/donate 

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