Prof. Peter Myron Cohen

Graduate of Harley School (Rochester, NY) and Vermont Academy. Upon graduation in 1943, he immediately enlisted in the Air Force, known at the time as the Army Air Corps. Desperately wanting to be a pilot, the military in their wisdom sent him for training as a navigator on B-24 bombers. However the war ended before he could finish training. Whereupon he shortly went out and got his private pilots license. He continued to fly well into his 70's, owning (in part) 3 different Mooneys and a Stearman biplane. On March 27, 2002, at the tender age of 77, he and a friend (and fellow Mooney owner) set a National Aeronautic Assn. speed record for class C1C (single engine, 2200 to 3800 pounds) by flying coast to coast in 11 hours, 39 minutes and 8 seconds. This was later confirmed as an international record as well by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

After the war he graduated from the University of Rochester, where he captained the track team. In his first job after graduation, he went to work for the CIA compiling data on Russian transportation systems for 2 years. Wanting something more, and with his father bugging him to join him at the family scrap business, he went to Harvard School of Design, then worked for a year for an architectural firm. This turned out to be a good move as his father died and the family company was sold. He then took an Assistant Professor position at Cornell University for the next 23 years, with 2 stints teaching at Kabul University in Afghanistan. He retired to the Maine coast near Ellsworth where he designed and built two homes for himself. The second being featured in the August 2009 issue of DWELL magazine.