Dr. Robert (Robbie) Cohen, a longtime resident of Glen Ellen and Sonoma, passed away at his home on March 18, after a brief hospitalization. He was 75.
For more than 30 years, Cohen was a fixture in the emergency room at Sonoma Valley Hospital.
“It is almost a cliché how many lives Robbie saved in Sonoma ‒ including mine,” said Cohen’s friend of more than 25 years, Ofur Zur, who years ago Cohen had resuscitated while in the throes of a heart attack.
Cohen was born on July 12, 1945, in Houston, Texas and he grew up in Jacksonville, Florida.
Glenn Cohen describes his brother as a great student and a great athlete – excelling in both football and baseball in high school.
“Robbie was also just really well-liked,” said Glenn, noting that his brother was elected senior class president of his high school, Landon High. “I have never heard a bad thing said about him.”
Cohen graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1967 with a degree in electrical engineering and later served as a captain in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War.
After four years of service, he surprised his family by applying to medical school, never having taken a pre-med class. He received his medical degree from University of Guadalajara and completed his internship and residency at U.C. Irvine medical center.
“While we were surprised when Robbie announced he was going to be a doctor, he always had an abiding desire to help people,” said Glenn. “He was a great human being and he became a terrific doctor.”
Cohen started working at Sonoma Valley Hospital in 1988.
He met his wife Janine in 1991 on her first day of work there.
“Robbie was sitting in the ER in his jeans and Teva sandals and he offered to give me my MMR vaccination,” said Janine. The next time they met, Cohen was unwinding after a long shift by practicing his fly-fishing casting in the emergency room parking lot.
“I was drawn to his confidence, his compassion and his ability to make people feel like they were the only thing that mattered in that moment,” said Janine.
Cohen became the director of the emergency room in 2005.
“Robbie considered it an honor to be allowed into people’s lives,” said Janine. “Especially in the ER when patients and families were likely scared and anxious given the uncertainty of the moment. He got to know his patients on a personal level and could carry on a conversation on just about any topic.”
In 2008, Liz Bahrenburg’s young son Skylar was rushed to Sonoma Valley Hospital unable to breathe, due to complications from spinal muscular atrophy. He died that night and 13 years later, Bahrenburg is still moved to tears by Cohen’s compassion and kindness.
“It was the roughest moment of my life and I could tell how much he cared,” said Bahrenburg. “He knew how much pain we were going through. He did everything in his power to help us. In all my experience with Skylar’s care, I had never felt that connection with other doctors.”
It was Cohen’s unique combination of heart and medical prowess that never ceased to amaze Zur.
“Robbie had heart, incredible intuition and astounding medical capacity,” said Zur. “He was deeply caring and he was a brilliant diagnostician, making him extremely well-suited to run the ER.”
In 2010, Cohen became the hospital’s chief medical officer and he played an integral role in the opening of its new emergency room in 2014.
He retired from Sonoma Valley Hospital, and from medicine, in 2018.
“I have accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish,” Cohen told the Index-Tribune at the time. “This is emotional, but it is the right time.”
Cohen devoted his free time to his family and any hobby he had at the moment, said Janine.
“Robbie had an endless love of learning,” she said. “He would pursue an interest until he mastered it and then would move on to something else. His interests were endless and always changing.”
A casual interest in beekeeping by his daughter, Isabella, and in golf by his son, Atticus, became passionate pursuits for Cohen who purchased two hives and a set of golf clubs and learned all there was to know about both beekeeping and golf, Janine said.
And Cohen loved nothing more than to watch his twins swim.
“Even if he had just worked a night shift, there was not a swim meet that he missed,” she said. “He was so proud of his children and grandchildren and took every opportunity to be involved in their lives.
“Robbie is leaving behind three exceptional kids ‒ incredibly bright and personable,” said Glenn Cohen. “It says a lot about Robbie as a parent.
“I would have loved to have had a guy like Robbi for a dad,” said longtime friend John Painter.
Author Sam Keen was friends with Cohen for more than a decade.
“We were part of a group of four men who met for breakfast fairly regularly to talk about life, women and politics,” said Keen. “He was sharp, kind and funny. Between his friends, his family and medicine, he had a wonderful life.”
Zur was also part of Cohen’s weekly breakfast group. “We met last Wednesday (right after Robbie’s death),” said Zur. “And we felt him there with us.
Janine describes Cohen as a man of character and conviction, who would want to be remembered by his community for his service and the hope that he had touched their lives in some small way and made it better.
“He would want his oldest son Mathew to know the pride and joy that he and his family brought him,” she said. “And he would want to know that the 18 years that he spent with Atticus and Isabella were enough to shape their character and for them to know how proud he was of them,” she said.
Cohen is survived by Janine and his three children, as well as his grandchildren Oliver and Violet Cohen. He is also survived by his brother Glenn and his sister Debbie Cohen of Jacksonville, Florida.
Because of COVID, a private memorial is planned.
Contact Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.
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