A Pioneer Passes

Posted November 13, 2009, 8:31 pm in Centenarian Project
Credit by Marc Middleton, Growing Bolder Staff

It’s with heavy hearts that we learned of the passing of Dr. Gene Cohen, a remarkable man who unknowingly encouraged us to launch GrowingBolder.com and later was a guest on the Growing Bolder Radio Show.

While some aging stereotypes can be smashed with a not-so-simple act like barefoot water skiing at 93, other aging stereotypes are more pervasive and more difficult to eliminate. That’s where Dr. Cohen came it. A renowned Harvard and George Washington Medical School educated geriatric psychiatrist, he debunked the myth that aging means an inevitable decline of mind and body.

While the medical establishment tended to treat aging as a disease, Dr. Cohen proved that the later adult years can be a time of great creativity. He reported in his groundbreaking research that brains create new brain cells as long as people are encouraged to keep trying new pursuits and the elderly have almost limitless capacity for intellectual growth.

Dr. Cohen’s research inspired us to create Growing Bolder Lifelong Learning Minutes with funding from the Abram and Ray Kaplan Foundation.  Among his many research projects, a 2002 study showed that those who engaged in the arts late in life had fewer illnesses and injuries and more independence.

According to Cohen, not only can older brains produce new brain cells, but from age 60-80, the brain’s information processing center achieves its greatest density and reach. And the brain has the capacity to “re-sculpt” itself as certain genes are activated by experience as we age. His influence is helping society evolve more optimistic models of the aging process.

He authored over 150 publications in the field of aging including, The Creative Age: Awakening the Human Potential in the Second Half of Life, and most recently, The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain. In 1975, Dr. Cohen became the first chief of the Center on Aging. He was the founding director the Washington, DC-based think tank Center on Aging, and is past president of the Gerontological Society of America.

Dr. Cohen passed away on Friday, November 6, 2009, after a 14-year battle against prostate cancer.

Listen to Dr. Cohen's Interview on the Growing Bolder Radio Show



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