DEER ISLE – Louise Alden (Horwood) Cohen, 81, formerly of Spruce Head, and Cambridge, Mass., died Monday, April 26, 2004, at Chilton House in Cambridge, Mass., after several years at a Deer Isle health facility. She is survived by her three daughters, Louise P. “Robin” Alden and her husband, Ted Ames, of Stonington, Abigail T. Alden of Camden, and Eliza S. Alden and her husband, Larry Barton, of Bryn Mawr, Pa.; and by two special granddaughters, Natalie A. Talbot and Anne C. Ames. She is also survived by her sister, Charlotte P. Armstrong of New York, N.Y.; and her brother and his wife, Sargent P. and Ruth Ann Horwood of Hamilton, Ontario. She was predeceased by her first husband, Charles Seymour Alden in 1968; and by her second husband, Dr. Jonathan Cohen in 2003. She was the daughter of Louise Peirce Horwood and Murray P. Horwood of Cambridge, Mass. Louise graduated from Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Mass., in 1937, The Winsor School in Brookline, Mass., in 1940, and Bryn Mawr College in 1944. Two of these affiliations in particular formed the focal point of Louise’s professional work and of many of her deep friendships, Shady Hill School and Bryn Mawr College. In 1954, she was asked to start an Alumni Association for Shady Hill School, which she did working at home while her children were still very young. By 1957, that job had expanded to a job at the school that included admissions, putting out the Shady Hill News, and acting as staff coordinator for the fundraising committee. After the death of her first husband in 1968, she worked for close to 20 years as an admissions officer at Radcliffe College, and later at Harvard University after the two merged. She was a devoted alumna of Bryn Mawr College, Class of 1944. She served on the New England scholarship committee, served as a regional admissions officer, and was active in numerous other college activities over the years. Louise loved to travel and, characteristically did not let even more than 30 years of Parkinson’s Disease stand in her way. She instigated, planned, and enjoyed many trips with her husband, Jonathan Cohen, including a trip to Antarctica in 1994, as well as her last trip to Cambridge for the week before she died. Singing and music were a part of her life from early school days to the concerts and Gilbert and Sullivan operettas she so enjoyed in the last years of her life. Flowers and her garden were a true pleasure to her. Louise’s life is perhaps best captured by speaking of the quality of her relationships with her many friends throughout the world. She made friends easily, and kept them, maintaining a unique relationship with each one. Even after she was no longer able to pick up the phone or write one of her notes, she could dictate them, and follow with interest and concern the activities in her friends’ lives. Right to the end she retained her incisive and organized mind and her engagement in life, tracking and caring about the activities of those close to her, of her friends throughout the world, the course of world and national politics, and those tasks needed to live daily life. A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Sunday, June 6, at Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Mass. A gathering in her memory will also be held 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 4, at the Island Nursing Home. In lieu of flowers, her family requests that contributions be made to the Revels, 80 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472 or to Island Nursing Home, 587 No. Deer Isle Road, Deer Isle, ME 04627.
LOUISE ALDEN COHEN
