only one theme- he began with the beginning of mankind and ended with now. Later that semester Bucky asked if anyone would like to help him build his house. I said I’d be glad to, but I was leaving school at the end of the semester to take a design job so I could support my wife and two children. He blinked those big, magnified eyes and said, “we’re not going to build my house later- we can build it in an afternoon.” In January 1964, the same week I began teaching at Indiana University, Bucky Fuller’s picture appeared on the cover of TIME.magazine. Looking back on it now, I realize Harold L. Cohen was the catalyst for importing Moholy’s former students to form the new Design Department at SIU. Two of my favorite teachers were Davis Pratt and Elsa Kula. Although I never met him, the much-loved teacher Harold Grosowsky, one of Harold’s students in Chicago, later joined the faculty at SIU. By 1966 Cohen had moved back East to Silver Springs, MD where he became the Director of the Institute for Behavioral Research (IBR) and was appointed President of IBR’s Experimental College. Concurrently, he was appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at John Hopkins School of Medicine where he ran a program for young suicidal adults who had been institutionalized at the Phipps Clinic because of their use of LSD. In l974, he was appointed Dean and Professor of the School of Architecture and Environmental Design (now called Architecture and Planning) at the State University of New York at Buffalo. I kept hearing about Cohen’s inspired teaching methods, including from one of my best graduate students, Carl Twarog, now a professor of art and design at Eastern Carolina University. At this writing, Harold and Mary Cohen live in downtown Buffalo where they collaborate in research and world travel. Harold told me in a recent telephone conversation, “When our children were growing up, they were asked what was my profession for the school records. I told them to put down Teacher.” He spoke the word with pride. And it is fully deserved. Al Gowan, Professor Emeritus • Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, Massachusetts a.gowan@comcast.net
How Harold L.Cohen made all the difference - continued - By Al Gowan
1960 mouse cage
Shechmeister Cohen mouse cage patent
mouse cage patent
Design at Southern Illinois University