Larry Cohen, a cigar-chomping raconteur with a biting wit that came through in numerous newspaper columns for years, died suddenly Monday at the age of 64.
Cohen suffered a heart attack in Florida, where he had recently moved after living in Connecticut for decades.
His death was mourned Tuesday by his numerous friends in the journalism business, as well as former Gov. John G. Rowland, who worked with Cohen.
“I loved Larry and his writing,” said Carolyn Lumsden, the editorial page editor of The Hartford Courant. “He provided the opinion pages with just the right witty, conservative tone we needed when he started his column in 1996. He always made me laugh. Plus, on a personal level, he was a mensch. I’ll miss him greatly.”
Only two days before his death, Cohen exchanged an email with a friend in Connecticut and said that he planned to move briefly to a hotel in Fort Meyers in order to avoid the impending Hurricane Isaac that has been speeding past Florida this week. The storm caused a delay in the opening of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
“My slide into semi-retirement has not been as calm as I had thought,” Cohen wrote. “Still writing 125 columns per year, doing some extra writing for the Hartford Business Journal and editing a book for a lawyer in New Jersey. If Mitt made me his speechwriter, and actually listened to me, he would be named King for Life.”
Cohen added, “Feeling good, but my health is not perfect. Haven’t played golf for a while. In September, I’ll sneak out for nine holes and see what happens. Hope all is well. Larry.”
Rowland knew Cohen from his days at the conservative Yankee Institute and hired Cohen for a brief stint during his first term as governor.
“Larry was a great friend and advisor,” Rowland said. “I was blessed to have him working for me while I was in office. His brilliant mind and quick wit made him enjoyable to be with, talk with and debate with. We spent time in the early days starting the Yankee Institute, and his humor, warm smile and quips will leave us all many fond memories. He will be missed by all of us. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”
Vincent Valvo, a longtime editor in Connecticut, said Cohen was among the best in his trade.
“He has to be one of the best, most observant writers,” Valvo said. “He would really get to the heart of things, and he would do it with such wit. He was amazing. … The fastest way to improve any publication I went to was to put Larry Cohen in as a columnist.”
Known as a cigar smoker, Cohen also sometimes smoked a pipe and wore a bowtie.
“He was a cigar and Scotch guy,” Valvo said. “Any time there was a cigar dinner at the Hartford Club, I would invite him.”
Born as Laurence D. Cohen on May 26, 1948 in Chicago, he later graduated from Bradley University in Peoria in 1971 and then moved to Hartford to start his career in newspaper journalism at The Courant. He served at one point as the paper’s religion writer.
Over the next four decades, he served as a reporter, editor, and columnist for multiple publications that included The Courant, Hartford Business Journal, Banker & Tradesman in Boston, and the Waterbury Republican American. A speechwriter and public relations professional, he worked at the Hartford Insurance Group and Hartford-based United Technologies Corporation.
For 33 years, Cohen worked as an adjunct instructor at various colleges, including the University of Connecticut, the University of Hartford, Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, and Albertus Magnus College in New Haven.
Larry moved with his wife, Jan, in December 2010 from their longtime home of Glastonbury to Sanibel, Fla. After the move, he continued to edit books and write columns.
He served on numerous boards and was most recently that president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. At various times, he also served as the president of the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists, the president of Public Relations Society of America in Connecticut, and as a board member at the Mark Twain House in Hartford and the American Red Cross.
He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Janice Udesen Cohen of Sanibel; his sister Barbara Pollack of Washington Crossing, PA; his nephew, Benjamin Pollack of Budd Lake, NJ; and his aunts, Bevelyn and Sandra, both of St. Petersburg, Fla. He was predeceased by his parents.
A memorial celebration is planned next month in Connecticut. Memorial donations in Cohen’s name may be sent to the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation, P.O. Box 411532, San Francisco, CA 94141.
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12 Responses to Larry Cohen, Longtime Columnist Known For His Wit, Dies Suddenly In Florida At 64
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“Larry was devoted to columnists, and we were devoted to him. He was smart, funny, friendly and creative, and that’s why we loved him. On behalf of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation, we are saddened to lose our national president because he represented everything that is respected about our profession. And we thank his wife Jan for naming our foundation — which provides training and scholarships to young columnists — as a beneficiary upon his unexpected passing.”
- Dave Lieber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist and secretary of the NSNC Education Foundation.
I shared office space in Glastonbury with Larry for years. What a great mind, what a sense of humor, and what an awful golfer.
Larry came into my office one day and said: “I’m writing an article about an old case that was still in litigation after years; but,he was looking for a word. He asked what is that white fluffy stuff you find in the dryer? I told him lint! He was thrilled and his column included the phrase describing the old case as ‘so much leftover litigation lint from the 60′s.” We told him we should have charged by the word.
This was a truly brilliant and humble man. He will be missed.
This politically incorrect voice will be much missed.
He was a nice guy & sometimes a good writer. I always read him in the HBJ.
R.I.P. Mr. Cohen
never a good thing when a voice, deft and authentic, is lost…we all lose something and perhaps, if we are to retain a measure of that authenticity, a precious gift in the age of hype and spin, we can best pay tribute to the individual who did the heavy lifting, larry himself, we can look with sharper eyes at the snake oil sermons of hucksters, politicals and the lot of special interests that have none of us at heart…mainly because they are without the heart that made larry’s writing, agree with him or no, engaging…rather an invitaiton to debate than a call to brickbats and blather.
Larry was a friend. We served together on the Yankee Institute Board of Directors back when Yankee was just getting started. Been out of touch for awhile. Noticed the absence of his Courant column and wondered where he had gone. His wit and cogent remarks will be missed by all.
The most memorable thing about Larry is that he kept a lot of stuff about people in his brain. For example, he knew my research area was children and media. Every few months he would send me a clip about my interests that was exactly tailored to me. If he saw my name on a news feature or academic article, he would send a few sentences of response, sometimes with a dose of sarcasm, but as you say, it didn’t matter if you were on the right or on the left. He was not a social conservative; to me, he embodied the real sprit of libertarianism. He could insult everything you believed but you left liking him. And I was just one of a whole constellation in his wide universe. Somewhere in the great beyond, he is reminding an angel that everything she knows is wrong. And she is smiling!
Larry was my mentor when I was at UCONN and he was at the Yankee Institute. Despite our political, religious, just about everything differences, I respected him and he, me. That’s what made him special.
One of a kind — that term was created for someone like Larry.
Rest in peace you curmudgeon.
A good and gentle man, approachable, brilliant and funny. We will miss him.
Larry and Jan were our neighbors on Chapman Drive in Glastonbury for over 20 years. We shared a common joy in speech writing; he professionally and I as a Toastmaster (including my service as a District 53 Governor). We also had common friends who enjoyed cognac and cigars after a hunt. Larry was there for the cognac, cigars and discussions. I will miss the joy of our discussions on the street.
Larry Cohen’s passing was a loss to thinkers, political satirists and genuinely all around good guys everywhere. I note with interest the trivial mention of his years as a speechwriter at United Technologies, where he was perceived to be unworthy of the stellar management that nearly bankrupted the Corporation in the late 1980’s. You see, the cigar-smoking writer had an incorrigible penchant for telling it like it was, for offering a new idea, for cutting through “corporate speak” and challenging the status quo – which was, “Do as I say, talk as I talk, or risk my wrath.” The Courant’s long-time hero, former United Technologies CEO and pompous aristocrat George David, who truly believes he has cornered the market on intelligence, was a particular critic of Cohen, who had the nerve from time to time to say, “George, let’s look at this another way.” It was only a matter of time before Larry was encouraged to look for “new opportunities”, a message I was nominated to deliver. I’ve held my head in shame ever since. Godspeed, old buddy. But please — run your copy by me before you take on the Chairman of Pearly Gates, Inc., will ya?