Though it wasn’t apparent at the start of his career, the time Robert M. Cohen ’61 Sci spent at Penn State “helped shape him and move him in the direction he wanted to go,” says his daughter Elissa Cohen Arch ’90 Bus. As a student, he helped to found a folk music society on campus and starred in a production of Paint Your Wagon. 

After earning his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson Medical College in 1965, Cohen practiced neurosurgery at Rancocas Valley Hospital in Willingboro, N.J. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the 1980s and retired from neurosurgery in 1988. “He knew that in order to be able to live a long life, he had to pivot—and so he pivoted,” Arch says.

Cohen pivoted back to folk music. He and his second wife, Dianne Tankle, founded the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance and helped to create Folk Alliance International. Over the years, the couple organized many festivals and hosted musicians—including folk legend Pete Seeger—when they visited Philadelphia.
A former president of the Philadelphia Folksong Society, Cohen loved sharing, teaching, and performing music, and spreading the word about folk musicians, Tankle says. He had a wonderful bass singing voice and could play almost any instrument by ear, often helping fellow musicians by calling out chords.

“He had a raw talent for music,” notes Arch. “You could see his joy when he played and sang. You just felt it. We were surrounded by it.”
Cohen (AEP) died Feb. 2, 2026. In addition to Arch and Tankle, he is survived by his son Aubrey, four grandchildren, and siblings Sue and Jeff. —Katherine O’Brien