COM Outlook Winter 2019

20 | DR. KIRAN C. PATEL COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE to my teaching certification courses. As a result, I decided to open a part-time counseling office in my home that catered mostly to troubled teenagers.” In 1952, after receiving his teaching certification, Cohen accepted a job as a biology teacher at Pleasant- ville High School in Pleasantville, New Jersey. Unlike the rote process of teaching he experienced when he was in high school, however, Cohen was unwavering in his decision to “shake things up” and make the learning process both interesting and interactive for his students. “I was determined I was not going to simply teach book-based biology,” said Cohen, who would begin a five-year stint as principal of Pleasantville’s Woodland School in 1956. “I wanted to teach life biology, so I had the students get involved in hands- on experiments.” In fact, one of Cohen’s experiments was so con- troversial, it nearly cost him his job. “I was teaching the students how to identify microorganisms, and I had them collect samples off the cafeteria tables and the toilet seats in the boys’ and girls’ bathrooms,” he explained. “As we were looking at the samples under the microscope, one of them tested positive for gonorrhea.” After Cohen sent the sample out for verification, he received a phone call from a displeased superinten- dent of schools, who summoned Cohen into his office and demanded to know what Cohen was teaching in his classroom. “The school system ended up hiring a company to sterilize the toilets monthly, which cost a significant amount of money,” he said. “My students could have learned this sort of information in a book, but I knew it would be more beneficial for them to gain firsthand knowledge.” In 1961, Cohen left the public school system to accept a position as professor of education at Glassboro State College in Glassboro, New Jersey, where he taught courses in education, human relations, interaction analysis, personality, psychology, research design, social foundations, and supervision. South Florida Beckons More than a decade later, Cohen and his wife, who was also a teacher, decided to retire to sunny South Florida. After months of self-imposed leisure time, which he filled by remodeling his North Miami Beach home, Cohen was miserable. “Basically, I got an ‘ F ’ in retirement; I was a mess,” he admitted. “I was organi- cally depressed, and I knew it. My wife said, ‘You’d better get a job or go to a psychiatrist,’ so I decided to reenter the workforce.” On a lark, Cohen decided to take a closer look at a new academic institution called Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine (SECOM) being built two blocks from his home. His walked over and met with SECOM administrators Morton Terry and Arnold Melnick, who hired him on the spot. Although they had never met, SECOM’s founding dean, Melnick, was familiar with Cohen’s published work on personality measurements. “Between 1961 and 1980, I probably gave about 10,000 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality tests to everyone from teachers and doctors to politicians, so I was well- versed on the topic,” said Cohen, who was named SECOM’s professor and chair of humanities and behavioral science in 1980. “In those early years, I was doing full-time student counseling, helping faculty members learn how to write lesson plans, teaching behavioral science, and Left to right: Stanley Cohen as an infant; Cohen (left) and his brother, Irv, on the Atlantic City, New Jersey, Boardwalk in 1941; 1946 class photo: Atlantic City High School; Cohen during his sophomore year at Rutgers in 1948