By Arnold Heller, Chair, Atlanta – Ra’anana Sister City Committee
Mr. Saul Cohen, beloved husband of Mrs. Myrna Cohen, the Vice Chair of the Atlanta – Ra’anana (Israel) Sister City Committee, passed away July 15, 2019. Saul was a founding member (established July 22, 2001) and strongly supported the committee’s program and joint projects for nearly two decades. Saul’s obituary follows.
Saul and Myrna shared sixty-one wonderful years of marriage together. They are pictured taking a slice from their wedding cake.
Saul was a loyal Florida Gator football fan and supposedly possessed about seventy-five official Gator shirts, hats, and other paraphernalia. Three generations of the Cohen family are gathered below at the NCAA College Football Hall of Fame.
People have told me that Saul was one of the best athletes to graduate from Miami Beach High School. A three-sport man – football, basketball, baseball – Saul was an excellent racquetball player too. In 2009, he competed in the Senior Level National Racquetball Championship against my brother-in-law Marc Auerbach.
Marc, who was 62 at the time and maybe the only player to win a championship at every age level, shared with me that Saul – then age 75 – gave him a pretty tough match.
Saul at the National Racquetball Championship, San Francisco, CA, 2003.
A copy of the invitation for “A Celebration of Life for Saul Cohen” memorial, held on Saturday, August 24, 2019, is provided.
I delivered a eulogy that I hoped would appropriately honor Saul’s life and capture his special qualities; warmth, kindness, generosity, a sunny disposition, and an easy-going manner.
Saul graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville and enjoyed a successful career in business and banking. He married Myrna in 1958 and a copy of their invitation follows the graduation picture.
Myrna is a successful travel agent; Saul shared a love of travel with her and the two of them visited diverse places. They are pictured below in Sitka, Alaska.
The Cohen family celebrated Saul’s sixty-fifth birthday with a spectacular football field theme cake: Saul was sitting on the sixty-five-yard line of life and so he was.
Saul and Myrna are doting grandparents of Katie and Jake Summey who are now grown up. I recall them as small children parading with the committee and Ra’anana Mayor Zeev Bielski up Peachtree Street as part of the 2001 Sister Cities International Convention hosted by the Atlanta Sister City Commission.
The parade participants gathered in a parking lot near Park Place / Five Points.
Katie carried the flag of Israel from Central City Park north to the old Atlanta Civic Center’s parking lot. Mayor Zeev Bielski and wife Caren were in a convertible a few yards in front of us. Zeev and Caren kept turning around to smile at the committee’s two youngest members.
The loving grandparents took great pleasure in organizing family gatherings and vacations.
Rest in eternal peace Saul Harold Cohen, a happy Buddha in life and business.