By Nancy Zuo
Dr. Jared “Jerry” Cohon, who served as the eighth president of Carnegie Mellon from 1997 to 2013, died Saturday, March 16. He was 76 and is survived by his wife Maureen.
Monday that week, the flag on the Cut was put at half-mast. In professor Henry Posner III’s railroad history class, students observed a moment of silence. Posner then shared a fond memory of Cohon humbly posing as a student during his class.
In his History of Rock n’ Roll class, professor Scott Sandage shared warm anecdotes of his time with Cohon.
Jim Morris, former dean of the School of Computer Science, reflected “Cohon was universally admired by our community. He was supportive of my various projects when I was a dean and tolerant of my foibles. I’ll miss seeing him.”
In “Speak Softly, Carry a Giant Carrot” from the 2002 issue of the Carnegie Mellon Magazine, Emeritus life trustee Maxwell H. Connan, having known all of Carnegie Mellon’s presidents except the first, speaks fondly of Cohon. He described Cohon as having added tremendously to the stature of the university.
“Not only does Cohon play an active role in the Pittsburgh community, he has greatly enhanced [Carnegie Mellon’s] international reputation as a strong research university,” Connan wrote. “In his own way, he’s low-key, he’s modest, but he’s extremely effective and has a great deal of ability administratively and technically.”
When the university-wide email went out, first-year Justin Wang thought, “Isn’t Cohon the same Cohon as Jared L. Cohon University Center (the CUC)?” Several other students echoed the same observation. This reflects a crucial contribution from Cohon’s presidency: improving the lives of students.
Each student starts Carnegie Mellon in the heart of the Cohon University Center, a home in the city away from home. The CUC welcomes them with warm arms, giving them space to explore, laugh, cry, and grow.
Every interaction, gathering, and performance in the Cohon University Center demonstrates the lasting impact of Cohon on the student life at Carnegie Mellon. Every smiling student is a reminder of the vibrancy he brought to campus. Cohon lives on in these moments.
Cohon served as the dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University in New Haven. Cohon’s legacy of environmental diligence continues at Carnegie Mellon. In the 1998 copy of the now defunct Carnegie Mellon yearbook, The Thistle, Cohon shared that during his first month at the university they removed a stand of trees on the Cut to build Purnell Center for the Arts.
He emphasized how shocked he was not hearing a whisper of student demonstration against the act and shared mixed feelings.
Cohon shared some of his worries in The Thistle that year, opining “that our undergraduates can be so focused on preparing for their careers that they fail to develop a sense of and passion for what else is important to them.”
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