Richard A. Cohn

Milwaukee native Richard A. Cohn died Nov. 6 from a heart attack while vacationing in Ireland with his wife, Jan. He was 54.

Throughout his years at Nicolet High School, he served as a weekend disc jockey and newsman for a small radio station in Menomonee Falls.

He continued as a radio newsman throughout his college years at Drake University in Des Moines, where he majored in journalism. While spending his junior year in England, he worked as a radio reporter for the British Broadcasting Company.

A conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, he worked in a nursing home in New York for his alternate service while completing his master’s degree in philosophy with honors at New York University.

According to his mother, Dr. Lucile “Lucy” Cohn of Milwaukee, “He deplored the living conditions [at the nursing home] and wrote numerous articles about the poor care given. He expressed satisfaction in being able to buy needed personal items for those who had no family, friends or money.”

After graduation, he was one of 19 newsmen invited to start an all-news station in Washington, D.C., where he worked for 12 years.

In 1981, he received his Ph.D in journalism and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and became an attorney for Lehigh County in Allentown, Pa. He then accepted a position with the U.S. Justice Department and returned to Washington in 1987. There, he worked as an attorney for the Freedom of Information Act Division; was a senior litigator for U.S. Farm Administration; and, at the time of his death, was an appellate counsel to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

He worked in civil, criminal and regulatory areas of law for state and federal governments during the week, but returned to the broadcasting field on the weekends, reading, writing and delivering the news for Metro Networks in Chevy Chase, Md.
In 1993-94, he was the Foreign Expert Lecturer-in-law of International Finance at the Shandong Finance Institute in Jinan, China.

In addition, he and his wife were enthusiastic travelers both inside and outside the U.S. Also, he enjoyed photography, theater and walking dogs on a volunteer basis at the Humane Society.

He was preceded in death by his father, Norman Cohn, and brother, Robert I. Cohn.
A memorial service will be held in Washington.

Memorials to Congregation Shalom, where he belonged before leaving Milwaukee, Hillel Foundation-Milwaukee, or the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning would be appreciated by the family.