American Handwriting Analysis Foundation

The history of the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation is complete only with a highlighted biography of its founder, known the world over as "Charlie" Cole.

Charlie first learned about handwriting analysis from Hans Swartz, a German refugee he met on a train ride in 1941. Besides his work in graphology, Swartz ran a small newspaper in Germany until his politics disagreed with Hitler. It wasn't long before he know he had to get out of that country; he lef about 1940. He patiently explained the details of handwriting analysis to Charlie and this sparked a lifelong love of the art/science. Hans Swartz instilled in Charlie two rules for successful handwriting analysis and Charlie passed them along to his own students. Look at the whole writing, was the first. The second was, do lots and lots of analyses.

About 1958 Charlie formed a Registry of Independent Handwriting Analysts and kept the group together with a newsletter under several different names before it became Gold Nibs. Even the people in this group became too demanding for the free spirit of Charlie Cole, so he began a letter campaign to authors of current graphology books and invited them to come to the West Coast to present a workshop. Dr. Frank Victor, author of Handwriting A Personality projection (1952), a book which is still on lists of those selling graphology books, was the first to accept Charlie's invitation.

No dues for membership were required at this point. After each workshop everyone who attended was given a membership card printed with the organization's new name and signed by the noted speaker. This was also true for the 1959 seminar of Dr. Klara Roman, author of Handwriting a Key to Personality (1952) and the 1960 seminar featuring Dan Anthony, who was teaching graphology in New York's New School for Social Research. Anthony later helped develop the psychogram and the course to go with it. Rhoda Kellogg, author of Analyzing Children's Art (1969) was not a graphologist, but her discussions on the gestalt of children's art offered a symbolism similar to graphology. Ralph Bradford from the Long Beach Police Department spoke on Questioned Documents. Blanche Baker, a psychiatrist and her husband, Bill Baker, who was president of the then active The American Graphological Society added still other dimensions. These notables shared their experiences in how handwriting analysis could be used.

Dr. Klara Roman came to California more than once. She saw in Charlie a dynamic personality who could bring to graphology a recognition heretofore neglected in the United States. During the 1960's she worked with him and with Dan Anthony in developing the concepts in her book into the psychogram course. Charlie called it Handwriting Analysis Workshops Unlimited because he felt there really are no limits to the study of handwriting analysis.

Other names who presented workshops under Charlie's promotion were Dr. Irene Marcuse, Applied Graphology (1969) and Guide to Personality Through Handwriting (1962); Joseph Stanovich, a protege of Dewitt Lucas and his school of Scriptology, and Dr. Ralph Poindexter, author of the Poindexter Organization (1977), were early speakers. Paul de Ste. Colombe, author of Graphotherapeautics (1966), was keynote speaker in 1963 and again at an early convention of the organized AHAF in 1969.

Besides writing several courses and teaching classes at his home, Charlie built a successful business in San Jose, California, and beyond. His basic courses were translated into Spanish and French. He began in 1958 as a Document Examiner and appeared in local superior courts as well as in Oklahoma, Nevada and on the island of Guam. In federal courts, he appeared in San Francisco, San Diego and, of course, San Jose. In 1975 he was featured speaker at a seminar and workshop in Hawaii for the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.

Besides dedicating the better part of his life to graphology Charlie also received personal honors for his unique contributions. He was selected for mention in the 13th Edition of Who's Who in California. As far as we could determine, he was the first graphologist to be so honored. AHAF honored him in 1982 with the Michon/Flandrin Award for distinguished Achievement, the first time this special award was bestowed, by nomination from among AHAF members.