Addition to Cohen Endowment Fund Increases Grand Total to $1,353,417
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE last month received an additional $122,331 from the estate of the late Justice William N. Cohen '79, one of the College's greatest benefactors, under whose will Dartmouth, beginning with the major distribution in 1941, has already received a total of $1,231,086 representing half of the residual estate. This additional distribution brings Judge Cohen's bequest to the College to a total of $1,353,417 which is the second largest amount ever received by the College from an alumnus. Only the gifts of Edward Tuck '62 exceed it.
The additional amount received represents one-half of a trust fund established by Judge Cohen's will and now available to the residuary legatees. In acknowledging this further bequest, the Trustees of the College voted their special thanks to Arthur J. Cohen '03, nephew of Judge Cohen and trustee of his estate, for "the wise and successful administration which resulted in substantially increasing the amount payable to Dartmouth College and for his generosity in acting as said trustee without compensation."
Judge Cohen made his original bequest without restriction, thus making available a substantial endowment which has been indispensable to the strength of Dartmouth College. In accordance with a suggestion of Judge Cohen's, the Trustees since 1941 have made a part of the income from the William N. Cohen Fund available to provide substantial scholarship aid to a number of entering freshmen. Stipends on the Cohen Fund also are granted to cover one-third of the board of deserving students working for the Dartmouth Dining Association. Other parts of the Cohen bequest function as general dowment, and a portion has been used to support music, drama and belles lettres in order to perpetuate the annual contributions for such purposes that Judge Cohen had made in the name of the Class of 1879 for a period of years during his lifetime.
Judge Cohen was for many years a leading trial lawyer in New York. After graduating from Dartmouth he worked his way through Columbia Law School, receiving the LL.B. degree in 1881. Outstandingly successful in the courtroom, he became a lawyer's lawyer, and the first in New York to act as a trial counsel for other lawyers and law firms. In 1897 he was appointed to the New York Supreme Court to fill out an unexpired term. Throughout his career he sought untiringly to elevate the standards of the judiciary.
Judge Cohen served as counsel to Theodore Roosevelt when he was Governor of New York. Later Judge Cohen was called by Roosevelt to Washington to assist in the drafting of the treaty under which the United States was made receiver of customs for San Domingo. He acted many times as a Supreme Court referee. During World War I he was chairman of the Draft Board of New York and later of the Ocean Advisory Committee of the United States Shipping Board. In 1899 Dartmouth awarded him the honorary LL.D. degree.
For years a generous and usually anonymous benefactor to the College, Judge Cohen was among those who contributed substantially to such landmarks of Dartmouth's development as Memorial Field, the Gymnasium, Webster Hall, the reconstruction of Dartmouth Hall, and the furnishings of the Treasure Room in Baker Library.
