Title
Mourning the death and honoring the memory of David Cohen.
Body
WHEREAS, David Cohen was ninety years old when, on October 3, 2005, God in his wisdom took him from our midst. This City, Commonwealth and Country have lost a true friend and a wonderful gentleman; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Cohen hails from a family that immigrated to Philadelphia from the Ukraine at the beginning of the twentieth century. David Cohen was bright, but a terrible paperhanger, so his six older siblings decided to send him to the University of Pennsylvania at age sixteen, rather than having him work in their wallpaper business. In 1937, David Cohen graduated first in his class from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law at age twenty-three. He moved to Washington, DC to work as a lawyer in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Rural Electrification Administration. Mr. Cohen's desire to help the "little people" and his liberal views were formed in this first job. He wanted to make government more relevant to all; and
WHEREAS, In 1943, David Cohen was drafted into the United States Army. He courageously served in New Guinea during World War II. Upon his return, he married Florence Herzog in 1946 and they lived in New York City. In 1952, the Cohens returned to the Ogontz section of Philadelphia to raise their growing family. By their example, they taught their four children the values of integrity, hard work, equality for all and a belief in public service; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Cohen entered democratic politics in the city as a committeeman in the forty-ninth ward in 1952. He worked on the presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson. In 1965, he took up the cause of racial bias in voter registrations in Mississippi and marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. In that same year, Mr. Cohen was elected ward leader in the seventeenth ward, and in 1967, he was elected councilman from the eighth district, serving the northwest section ...
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