Cohen Family Inducted into CHS Hall of Fame

Congratulations to the 2008-2009 Columbia High School Hall of Fame Inductees.

This year the Hall of Fame Committee chose an entire family to be inducted.  The Cohen family—Ben, Joan, Amy and Dan, all attended Columbia High School and went on to greater accomplishments in life.

Ben became a lawyer and was named the first General Counsel to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.  In 1981 he was appointed to serve as a Judge of the Superior Court where he presided over family court cases, criminal court cases, and civil cases.

Joan was an elementary school teacher and went on to attain a master’s degree in psychology.  While working towards her professional diploma, Joan did an internship at Columbia High School; she is a nationally certified school psychologist.  Not satisfied with these accomplishments, Joan went on to earn her counselor’s certification, which is the work she does today.

Amy competed on the girl’s gymnastics and volleyball teams while at Columbia.  She continued competing as a varsity gymnast at Brown.  When the University abolished women’s gymnastics as a varsity sport, Amy and her teammates instituted a ground-breaking Title IX lawsuit (Cohen vs. Brown) and became involved in a battle over equality for women in collegiate sports.  The lawsuit went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and decided in her favor.  Amy was named one of the Twenty Most Influential Women in Sports by “Women’s Sports and Fitness” magazine, and a Woman of the Year by “Ms. Magazine”, and was given a Woman of Distinction Award by the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders.  Amy now teaches in an international school in Costa Rica.

Dan was on the varsity wrestling team, was Student Council Treasurer, and actively involved in the TV Arts program and CCN.  This led to his decision to study communications and major in television production in college.  Dan’s full time TV career began with an opportunity to work as a production assistant on a new cable TV network that was being launched in October of 1996:  the Fox News Channel.  At Fox Dan worked on five different programs, achieving the position of Senior Coordinating Producer.  He currently works with the show “Hannity” where he oversees a team of field producers and tape producers.