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Norman Cohen


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Norman Cohen, 73, died at home on Saturday of Lewy Body Dementia. He was born in Louisville, KY to Shirley and Seymour Cohen.
 
He is survived by his wife, Jessica of Jamesville, son, Geoffrey and grandchildren Sawyer and Iselle of Newton Highlands, MA, sisters Billie and Rose Cohen, brother Andrew Cohen; sisters-in law Debbie Field and Shelly Field; a niece and four nephews.
 
Norm grew up in Monticello, NY where he met his wife of 53 years, Jessica.  He attended Cornell University, receiving a BA in cinematography and Virginia Tech, receiving a Master’s in Computer Science.  He was a person of diverse interests, working during his life as a filmmaker at the Art Institute of Chicago, public information specialist at the Cayuga County Planning Board, software engineer at Genigraphics and the Foxboro Company, and professor of computer science at SUNY Morrisville.  He loved teaching and working with his students and received many awards for his teaching.  At heart, he was a musician, playing at various times the bassoon, guitar and keyboard with a variety of formal and informal groups. After retirement, he began attending classes at the Downtown Writers’ Center and developed a love of writing poetry that was witty and insightful.

Most of all, Norm was known for his extremely dry sense of humor that lasted through his dementia. He used to say that his day was complete if he had made at least one person laugh.
 
Contributions to perpetuate his memory may be made in his name to the YMCA Downtown Writers Center, 340 Montgomery St, Syracuse, NY 13202.

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After many years, somehow I decided to google your name, and I found this sad news. I was an international student from Japan, and I graduated from Morrisville in 2001. Not only technical side, but also your lecture was life changing education to me. In 2021, I have developed numerous programs, and made multiple big projects success, and I am still carrying what you taught me to junior developers in my team.

Written by Kiichi Takeuchi
2021-12-13 7:01:13 PM



Norm and I were drawn together as Freshman at Cornell in ’65. We were both very active at the student radio station WVBR, which worked out of the basement of the student union. I think we were both proud of how we spent our extracurricular time as DJs and engineers. The AM station was modeled after top 40 stations of the time, right down to the somewhat vulgar electronic reverberation added to the DJs voices. The FM station, in a more dignified tone for the mid 1960’s, played classical music, jazz, and folk music. Norm’s mellow personality always shone through his disc jockey persona, and he played studio engineer and was a personal support system for me when I endeavored to broadcast an 80-hour marathon for a campus charity. On the radio, Norm always replayed the gleefully silly theme music from Ernie Kovacs’ live TV show of the ‘50s. Norm had a gentle sense of humor, spiced with a twist of Mad magazine’s absurdist nonsense. Ernie Kovacs and Jean Shepherd of WOR were media heroes shared by many young men my age. I think Norm would have been proud that among the Cornell student broadcasters who came along much later to WVBR was Keith Olbermann . Norm played in a band among our pals, which they called The Gross National Product. I tried to attend all their gigs, although I don’t play. I made posters for them. I loved Norm and Jessie deeply when we were at school. They guided me back to my feet after an undergraduate nervous breakdown. And sometime after college their unconditional love and friendship helped me to survive my own youthful failing marriage. I have fond memories of the period when Norm and I both worked at the Art Institute of Chicago. I guess that over the years his students must have known him as a very serious teacher. But the Norm I knew at college and a few years following was a gentle spirit, maybe sometimes levitated off the ground as an artist, but safely anchored by Jessica’s and Geoffrey’s love and support. He was a quietly funny man, alert to all the ironies in life. I always thought of his presence in our lives as a kind of spritely Jewish leprechaun. And I’m pretty sure that after Life, that is the happy spirit of Norm that will live closely with the rest of us while we are all still here. So long, Norm.

Written by DAVID STONE
2021-12-14 8:10:05 PM



I only knew Norm briefly as we worked together at Patalogix for several months. Nevertheless it was his spirit, outlook on life and our mutual interests that helped me make my decision to move to Syracuse for the opportunity to work with Norm. My sincere condolences to Jessica and the Cohen family. May his memory be a constant blessing to each of you. Bob DelZoppo

Written by Robert DelZoppo
2022-01-05 1:07:18 AM