Gene Cohen, professor and director of GW’s Center on Aging, Health and Humanities, died Nov. 7 at his home in Kensington, Md. He was 65.
Cohen’s cause of death was metastatic prostate cancer, according to an obituary in The Washington Post.
Cohen researched age and health issues, eventually being appointed the director of the Center on Aging, Health and Humanities in 1994. He also launched the school’s public education program on aging, called Societal Education about Aging for Change, or SEA Change.
“He was very popular at the University and did a lot,” Director of the Department of Speech and Hearing Michael Bamdad said.
Cohen was an expert on Alzheimer’s disease and wrote in his book, “The Mature Mind,” that he believed age is not the cause of the brain’s weakening.
Joska Cohen-Mansdield, a professor of health care sciences, called Cohen “a great leader in the field of mental health and aging, and in aging in general, and he was a wonderful person, full of laughter and kindness.”
In a letter announcing Cohen’s death, George Niederehe, chief of geriatrics research at the National Institute of Mental Health, called Cohen “inspiring.”
“He was a kindly and inspiring guy, the likes of whom one rarely encounters in life,” Niederehe said. “We are indebted to him for laying the foundation for the NIMH programs that now enable us to be engaged in federally funded research activities on the mental disorders of late life.”
Cohen wrote in “The Mature Mind” that one of his greatest insights was his explanation for what sustains human beings throughout life – the “inner push.” Cohen stated in his writings that the “inner push is there while we breathe, and it’s up to us to shape its energies,”
Cohen also founded the Creativity Discovery Corps and the Washington D.C. Center On Aging in 1994. He was the president of the Gerontological Society of America from 1996 to 1997. Apart from these positions, Cohen also held various directorial positions in organizations like the National Institute of Aging and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cohen is survived by his wife, two children and four grandchildren.
