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Dorothy Louise Neil Cohen ’51

Dorothy Louise Neil Cohen ’51, December 31, 2007, at home in Tempe, Arizona. Dorothy attended Reed for two years, later earning a BA from Arizona State University in English in 1981. In 1953, she married composer David Cohen. A Fulbright scholarship for David provided a two-year study in France, after which the couple moved to Alabama for his position with the University of Alabama. In Tuscaloosa, they raised three children and were active in the Civil Rights movement. Dorothy was chairman of the legal committee of the Human Rights Council and took five dossiers to Washington, D.C. She maintained a passion for civil rights and social activism throughout her life, supporting the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Arizona Democrats. She also took pleasure in travel, theatre, and 20th-century music. The family moved to Tempe in 1967, when David accepted a position with Arizona State University. In 1987, Dorothy earned a master's in French poetry translation from the university. She was a member of the American Literary Translators Association. Survivors include her son and two daughters, and three grandchildren. Her mother, Mary Gantenbein Holt-Hartford, graduated from Reed in 1923. David died in 1999.

Appeared in Reed magazine: May 2008

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