Dot Cohen declined to take credit for good deeds.
Someone else was more deserving, she’d say. Teamwork got the job done, she’d suggest.
Only when pressed would the Pittsburgh native acknowledge her significant input, said a son, Bruce Cohen of Decatur.
Mrs. Cohen, though, deserved praise. She played various roles for a bevy of charitable organizations, causes and issues to help make Atlanta better.
In the 1970s, she was a grad student, studying rehabilitation counseling at Georgia State University. Her thesis dealt with stroke victims — how they and their kin were ill-equipped to deal with such a life-changing issue. At the time, she was a volunteer at Georgia Baptist Hospital, now called Atlanta Medical Center.
“They liked what she did so much they started this [stroke victim] program,” her son said. “Mom set her own path and pursued it, but she was incredibly humble anytime she did anything.”
Visiting Nurse/Hospice Atlanta was a decades-long benefactor of her benevolence. She sat on its board, served as its chairwoman and volunteered in one way or another for 30 years.
For her 75th birthday, Sheldon Cohen, her husband of 54 years, asked what she’d like. Her answer: Give back. She and 40 to 50 of her female friends spent a Saturday morning painting a mural on a drab wall at Hospice Atlanta.
When the humble servant’s health waned, she checked into Hospice Atlanta. It was like settling into her second home.
“She is the quintessential volunteer,” said Dr. Linda Britton, medical director at Visiting Nurse/Hospice Atlanta. “She was always just a huge presence, and she touched somebody every day in some way.”
The funeral for Dorothy “Dot” Davidson Cohen, 75, is 1 p.m. Tuesday at Ahavath Achim Synagogue in Atlanta. She died Saturday of lung cancer. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care is in charge of arrangements.
Born in Pittsburgh, Mrs. Cohen moved with her family to Washington, D.C., when she was 9. She and her husband married in 1955 and lived briefly in New Orleans before Atlanta. She was a family therapist and counselor after graduate school.
Her civic involvement was multifaceted. Besides Visiting Nurse/Hospice Atlanta, she served as a volunteer, board member or president for community outfits that included: Jewish Family Services; Alzheimer’s Association of Georgia; the Marcus Institute; the National Council of Jewish Women and the Justice Center of Atlanta.
She also was the first woman elected president of Atlanta’s Ahavath Achim Synagogue. Dr. Herb Karp, a past synagogue president, said she was perfect for the job.
“She was really very intensely concerned with the welfare of the congregation,” he said, “and the future of the synagogue.”
He also served with Mrs. Cohen on the Hospice Atlanta advisory board.
Additional survivors include another son, Steve Cohen of Atlanta; a daughter, Andrea Cohen of Boston; and three grandchildren.
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