Raised in the Midwest by hardworking, middle class parents, Charles Cole D.D.S. has long valued the tenets of trust, community, and transparency. Though he didn’t hit his stride easily at first in school, that all changed when in second grade he began a single-minded pursuit of his goal: to be a dentist. He worked diligently to keep his grades up, attend Ohio State University, and graduated from Ohio State Dental School in 1977. Over the next three decades, he would own dental practices in Michigan, moving to and from Alaska in the mid-80s for a brief respite, and consulted with dental software companies to help create what would become today’s digital dental records. After his children left for college and when the opportunity came for him to head back to Alaska, he started his most recent practice, Same Day Dental, in 2013. He lives in Wasilla, Alaska and Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife, Judy.