William D. Cohen ’60

Bill died Aug. 5, 2008, at his home in Englewood, N.J., after a long struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  

Born in Paterson, N.J., Bill attended William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City, where he played varsity tennis and was president of the math club.

At Princeton, he majored in biology, participated in IAA athletics at Prospect Club and Wilson Lodge, and was on the art staff of Tiger magazine. Shortly after graduation, he married Marion Last and then earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at Columbia. He returned to Princeton for postdoctoral research in cell biology.  

Bill became a professor at Hunter College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He was known for his special devotion to undergraduate education and his enthusiasm for summer research in cytoskeletal elements, with his graduate students, at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. He pioneered online publication of practical research papers. In 2007, the president of Hunter College conferred on Bill a lifetime-achievement award for mentoring undergraduates, which he had continued doing long after his retirement in 2003.  

Bill’s wife, Marion, and their children, David and Sarah, survive him. The class extends deepest sympathy to them.