Reuben Cohen: ‘A Huge Champion of New Brunswick and Canada’

25 oct 2014 – Telegraph Journal Reuben Cohen: ‘A huge champion of New Brunswick and Canada’ MICHAEL WOLOSCHUK TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL H. Reuben Cohen was born in a cold-water flat above a pool room on Moncton’s Main Street in 1921, next door to his father’s fruit-and-vegetable store. He saved his pennies, nickels and dimes and bought a bicycle at Lounsbury’s, which he used to deliver newspapers and groceries out of his family’s little store. He loved the bike and took good care of it. When he outgrew the bicycle, the young Cohen sold it for more than he had originally paid – and so began the business career of one of New Brunswick’s most successful entrepreneurs. Cohen, 93, lawyer, businessman and philanthropist, whose financial empire was once valued in the billions of dollars, died Friday in Moncton following a brief illness. “He was going full tilt until about five weeks ago,” said Cohen’s wife, Astrid. “He had a full life. He said ‘I’ll go until I can’t live any longer,’ and that’s exactly what he did.” A funeral service will be held for Cohen at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27, at Tiferes Israel Synagogue in Moncton. Former premier Frank McKenna, a longtime admirer of Cohen’s, said he plans to deliver the eulogy – even if that means cancelling a scheduled trip to Asia. “We’re just trying to figure out some things,” said McKenna, who was scheduled to leave on a business trip to Asia on Friday afternoon – flying to Sydney and Hong Kong. “It’s fair to say I’m going to deliver the eulogy because one way or another, I’m going to do it.” McKenna, who is deputy chairman of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, received news of Cohen’s death just before giving a speech at an energy conference in Saint John and said he was “brokenhearted”by the news. “Reuben was a dear friend of mine and, more importantly, was a huge champion of New Brunswick and Canada,” said McKenna. “We used to talk constantly, and his mind was as sharp as a bell right to the end. He had wonderful perspectives on issues. He was generous, he was smart, he was wise. It’s a huge loss – he was a giant. “He was a billionaire at a time when a billion dollars was a lot of money. He’s gone through so many different businesses and (is) highly respected across Canada as a business leader. But more than that, he’s a philanthropist and community leader. He’s embraced numerous causes, he’s supported financially so many important institutions, he’s just one of those rare people who come along, those rare gems, you just can’t help but respect.” Cohen, who banked the profits he earned on the sale of his trusty Lounsbury’s bicycle and used his childhood savings to help fund his education at Dalhousie University, spent a successful career as a lawyer before establishing a financial empire. Before the early ’90s collapse of Central Capital, the company he formed with Leonard Ellen in 1974 as the Central and Nova Scotia Trust Company, it had the better part of a billion dollars in reserves and capital. Cohen personally had in excess of $100 million in assets, but these too lost their value in the collapse. “When the corporate collapse became known, it was as if a Churchillian ‘iron curtain’ descended on my life almost overnight,” Cohen wrote in his 1998 autobiography A Time to Tell (Key Porter).“It is almost as if I had died and gone to my reward.” While his “fall from corporate grace” left him a pariah among businessmen and forced him to part with his extensive and valuable art collection, the legacy of his efforts was such that it continue to impact regional art to this day. Pieces of his collection have become treasures at local institutions. A major gallery at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia still bears the name Central Guaranty Trust Gallery. “He had a great sense of the importance of the arts as a means towards a fulfilled life – and towards a healthy society,” said Bernie Riordon, the founding director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia at the time of Cohen’s endowment. “I’ll miss him a lot,” added Riordon, who is now director emeritus at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton.“He was like a wise elder who you could count on when you needed advice.” Thanks to Cohen’s vision and philanthropic good sense, the Louise and Reuben Cohen Endowment Fund at the Université de Moncton has been able to purchase almost 100 works of art since it was established in 1985 – comprising about 10 per cent of the overall collection of the gallery, which the school renamed Galerie d’art Louise et Reuben-Cohen in 2005. “He was really important to the arts in New Brunswick, but Reuben Cohen was especially important to Acadian artists,” said Claude Roussel, 84, whose connection to the arts in New Brunswick dates back to 1959, when he was appointed by Lord Beaverbrook himself to the position of assistant curator at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, as a link between the Acadian and English communities. “It’s really a great loss to New Brunswick, and I can only hope that his example will be followed by others – but it will be quite a void to fill,” added Roussel, who also founded the Université de Moncton’s fine arts programs and benefited directly from Cohen’s generosity. “We always operated on a shoestring, and it wasn’t until Reuben came along that were able to acquire some great works of art. He was a great man and this loss will be felt by many.” Indeed, tributes and expressions of condolences came in from all corners of New Brunswick and beyond. “I had the privilege of practising with Reuben for many years, and our daily rituals often involved walking home from work, where he inundated me with local historical facts and tall tales of fellow Monctonians,” recalled the David Smith, chief justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick. “He still maintained this daily practice and other lawyers followed in my footsteps, mesmerized by his wonderful sense of humour, his keen memory for details – embellished on occasion.” A close friend and former partner of Cohen’s, Smith was saddened by the news of his friend’s death and said he would deeply miss his spirit. “No one who has ever spent time with Reuben Cohen could call him boring,” he said. Cohen enjoyed a long and passionate relationship with his first wife, Louise, who died of ovarian cancer in 1988. It was said she encouraged and developed her husband’s interest in the arts. Louise Cohen received her arts education from some of the greats – Alex Col- ville, Lawren P. Harris and David Silver-berg – taking regular classes at Mount Allison University soon after she arrived in Moncton. In A Time to Tell, Cohen remembers Louise as a “striking physical beauty, she had a charm, wit, sense of humour and graciousness that captivated all who met her. “Louise became a sensation in Moncton and was sought by all elements in the city for aid, advice, community work and socializing.” Cohen’s accomplishments were many. A member of the Order of Canada, he received honorary degrees from Université de Moncton, Acadia University, St. Thomas University, University of New Brunswick and Dalhousie University, where he also served as chancellor, between 1990 and 1994. In 2004, he was inducted into the New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame, and in 2010, he was made a member of the Order of New Brunswick “for his contributions to the advancement of academic excellence in Atlantic Canada and the success of social endeavours in his home community of Moncton.” Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc noted Cohen’s philanthropic contributions to the community he called home – public ones like his support of the Greater Moncton YMCA, and private as well. “When you talked with him it didn’t take long to see that he had a very quick and incisive mind,” said LeBlanc. “He loved politics, from the national level right down to the local level, and was very observant. “He was a very kind and gentle man. And he was a gentleman in the old sense of the word, something you don’t always see these days.” Cohen’s generosity and wisdom touched many, including New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant, who said his lasting legacy will not only be the example he set as a businessman, but as a generous, community-minded philanthropist. “I was saddened to learn of the passing of Reuben Cohen,”said Gallant.“On behalf of the provincial government, I offer my sincere condolences to the family and friends of this great individual. As we reflect on the life of such a fine New Brunswicker, we can all learn from Reuben Cohen’s example of giving back to the community.” Brenda Robertson, former senator and minister in the government of Richard Hatfield minister, was a good friend of Cohen’s who will miss him deeply. “What to say about Reuben? Everyone knows Reuben Cohen in a different way,” said Robertson. “I always found him such a good leader, but such a quiet leader. I had known him for years as a friend. You could always rely on him. And it didn’t matter what the issues were, you would always get a different perspective from Reuben. He had that type of intellect: quiet but forceful.” Richard O’Hagan, former press secretary and special assistant to then-prime minister Lester Pearson and former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s special adviser on communications, knew Cohen through Harrison McCain, who struck a famous and longstanding relationship with the Moncton lawyer and financier.

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