Oliver Burton Cohen

Longtime New Mexico attorney, Oliver Burton Cohen, a.k.a., Ollie or O.B., died at home in Albuquerque, NM, on Friday, September 6, 2019, at the age of ninety-two. He is survived by Elizabeth Johanna (O’Grady) Cohen, his wife of sixty-seven years; his daughters, Julia and Dianne Cohen; son, Paul Cohen; and grandchildren, Jeremy and Alisha Brach. His oldest son, Mark Daniel Cohen, blessed be his memory, passed away in 2002.

Born in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1926 to Henry Cohen and Julia (Price) Cohen, immigrants from Eastern Europe, Oliver was a first-generation American and proud member of America’s greatest generation who served in WWII. The youngest of five children, his siblings; Raymond, Mildred, Florence, and Betty all pre-deceased him. Oliver’s father, Henry, died at the height of the depression when Oliver was eleven years old. He grew up quickly after his father passed and got his first pair of long pants at age thirteen. Oliver helped support his family by doing odd jobs including digging graves and working in a slaughterhouse where the workers were given free hot dogs.

Oliver’s uncle, “Ike,” was a neighborhood barber who kept an eye on him after his father died, giving him a quarter every time he went into the barbershop for a haircut. This sparked a lifelong passion in Oliver for trimming bushes and pets hair. He attended Alderdice High School in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh and developed strong friendships with the neighborhood boys who taught him to play pool and dice and generally instructed him in the arts of the time. His favorite story from growing up was when a gang of would-be toughs led by the little brother of Billy Conn (then light-heavyweight boxing champion of the world) came into his neighborhood looking for a fight. They found it when Homer Hassan, the cousin of Oliver’s childhood friend Kamil Naffa, knocked Conn out with one punch and the rest of Conn’s gang fled in turn.

Oliver separated from the army at Roswell Army Air Field in 1946. He attended college in Montana and returned to New Mexico on a 1930s Harley Davidson flathead in 1950 wearing a leather helmet, goggles, and motorcycle kidney belt. He was driving his Harley around the University of New Mexico campus when he met his dear friend and future business partner Ralph Brutche, and was introduced to his soon to be wife Elizabeth Johanna O’Grady at the Alvarado Train Station the following year when she came to visit from Chicago. Elizabeth never went back to Chicago and Oliver never went back to Pittsburgh. He could not afford a traditional engagement ring so he strapped his kidney belt around a tree at the apartment where Elizabeth was staying when he proposed to her. Oliver and Elizabeth were married by Eugene Lujan, Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court, in 1952, and remained married until Oliver’s death on Friday.

Oliver worked for developer Dale Bellamah building the Princess Jean Park subdivision and was later in the second graduating class from the University of New Mexico School of Law. Elizabeth’s mother, Mary Marie O’Grady, moved in with the family when Elizabeth had her first child and “Grammy” O'Grady was part of the family until her death in 1973. Oliver practiced law in Albuquerque for forty years before retiring and spent the last decades of his life surrounded by family, pets, and friends. He will be loved and missed and remembered always. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a charity of your choice.

A Visitation will begin at 9:30 a.m. followed by A Funeral Service on Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 10:00 a.m. at Chester T. French Memorial Mausoleum Chapel, 924 Menaul Blvd NE, 87107.