Richard Walter Cogan of West Orange, formerly of Montclair, died on April 11, 2024, two weeks shy of his 90th birthday.
“Are you OK, Darling?” were among his final words. As any of his many friends at Brookdale Senior Living Center in West Orange would say, for the past few years, while his memory was fading, many times a day he’d turn to his beloved wife of 67 years, Barbara, tenderly caress her hand and check to see if she was comfortable and well cared for.
Mr. Cogan was born in New York City in 1934 and raised in Closter. He graduated with a
B.A. from Rutgers in 1956 (and found his soon-to-be wife at Douglass College) and went on to earn a master’s from Columbia University, with additional studies at Northeastern University.
His logical mind, gentle temperament and patient manner made him an ideal elementary school teacher. His career took him to several schools in New Jersey and New York, and then to Morocco and France, and eventually to the environs of Boston, where he became a school principal in Billerica. He retired in 1998.
Mr. Cogan was a voracious reader, loved playing classical music on his piano and adored everything about opera. He and his wife spent many summer vacations taking in performances in the world’s great opera houses. He devoured books on widely varied topics and styles and took great pleasure in comparing notes with others.
Mr. Cogan, also a former resident of Wilmington, Massachusetts, and Brookline, Massachusetts, is survived by his wife, Barbara; sons, Kevin (Elizabeth) of Sparks, Nevada, and Christopher (Sherry) of Boca Raton, Florida; sisters-in-law, Linda Festa and Pat Roelke; brother-in-law, Gary Roelke, and many nieces and nephews.
Services were private.
The family suggests memorial donations to the organization to which he donated many hours of volunteer activity, the ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts, One Center Place, Suite 850, Boston, MA 02108.
Arrangements were made by Caggiano Memorial Home for Funerals, 62 Grove Street, Montclair.