Meet Our Donors
Harvey '65 and Florence Cohen
Harvey and Florence Cohen count among their blessings a 48 year marriage and two sons, as well as their successful careers. Harvey attributes a great deal of his success to the education he began at Drexel University.
Their success allowed the Cohen's to provide high quality care for their younger son, Jason, who has cerebral palsy and grew up with special needs. Now, after successfully completing his own higher education, Jason has a job he enjoys and lives on his own in an apartment complex designed for the physically disabled.
Harvey and Florence have a strong desire to "give back," and have decided to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities through Drexel University. They have established a Trust that will ultimately support research programs at Drexel designed to help people with disabilities lead quality, productive lives.
When Harvey was a teenager, he would sit on his front porch with his mother, and they would discuss his options for higher education. Harvey knew his abilities were related to Science and Math and he was thinking about a profession in Architectural Engineering. He and his parents discussed his options and they investigated both Drexel and Penn State, ultimately deciding that Drexel was the best choice for Harvey.
Harvey studied hard and did very well, making the Dean's list his first year. "I did fail one course in Thermodynamics {a branch of natural science concerned with heat and its relation to energy and work}. I just froze during one exam."
Harvey's focus at Drexel was on Commerce and Engineering, and bent towards the analytical side of Engineering. Soon after he and Florence married, he received a first job offer from a company in Chicago.
"We packed up our little Dodge Dart and headed out West to stay with relatives while we got situated and I started my new job working for Inland Steel Company," he said. Harvey stayed with the company for five years and, while in living Chicago, received a Master's degree in Business from the Illinois Institute of Technology. After working for many years in the engineering field, Harvey was downsized from an engineering position and went into sales, where he worked his way up and became a stockbroker.
Harvey and Florence both revealed that they began thinking of creating a Trust to benefit Drexel even before Drexel became involved with the medical community through medical education. Drexel's premier programs in the areas of technology and robotics have been a particular area of interest for the Cohens, and they are especially excited about the functional optical brain imaging (fNIR) research being conducted at the School of BioMedical Engineering Science and Health Systems.
"Major breakthroughs in this field may be around the corner," said Harvey. And, through their planned gift to benefit Drexel University, Harvey and Florence Cohen will be a part of them.