Cohn, Jan K(adetsky) 1933-2004

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COHN, Jan K(adetsky) 1933-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born August 9, 1933, in Cambridge, MA; died of cancer July 1, 2004, in Troy, NY. Educator and author. Cohn was a professor of American literature and studies and former dean of faculty at Trinity College. Completing her undergraduate work at Wellesley College in 1955, she earned her master's from the University of Toledo in 1961 and her doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1964. Her academic career began at Toledo, where she taught English until 1968. This was followed by two years at the University of Wisconsin, and she spent the 1970s at Carnegie-Mellon University, where she was also director of graduate studies from 1973 to 1979. Cohn was a professor and English department chair at George Mason University from 1979 until 1987, when she joined Trinity. At Trinity, she was dean of faculty from 1987 to 1994—the first woman to hold that post there—and was also chief academic officer. She demonstrated considerable energy by continuing to teach and publish while holding these administrative posts, and became G. Keith Funston Professor of American Literature and American Studies in 1994. Cohn was the author of such books as Improbable Fiction: The Life of Mary Roberts Rinehart (1980), Creating America: George Horace Lorimer and the Saturday Evening Post (1989), and Covers of the Saturday Evening Post: Seventy Years of Outstanding Illustration from America's Favorite Magazine (1998); more recently, she edited Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady (2001).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Washington Post, July 13, 2004, p. B7.

ONLINE

Post-Gazette.com,http://www.post-gazette.com/ (July 3, 2004).

Trinity College,http://www.trincoll.edu/ (July 1, 2004).