Academic

Mel Cohen, RIP

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

After my freshman year of college, I snagged a dream summer job: assistant to the golf pro at the Eau Claire Golf and Country Club. One of the members of the Club was Mel Cohen, Chairman and CEO of National Presto Industries Inc. "Mr. Cohen," as I called him, died earlier this month at the age of 90.

I knew about Presto before I met Mr. Cohen, of course. When I was a child, everyone had Presto's products, it seemed. Pressure cookers, electric irons, electric frying pans, coffee makers, etc. And I can still remember the first time I saw a PrestoBurger in the mid-1970s. That gadget seemed like magic to me. We also snapped up a FryBaby a few years later.

Mr. Cohen was not a great golfer, but he was avid. Sometimes we found ourselves side-by-side on the driving range, where he would give me tips on golf and life. Funny, I didn't realize until reading his obituary that he was a lawyer. But he was the first person who told me that I wouldn't like living in Washington D.C., something he had tried as a young lawyer in two New Deal agencies, the Office of Price Administration and the Civil Aeronautics Board. He had me pegged as a small-town kid, and he was right.

We talked about business, too. At the time, he was very excited about the golf bag stand, which he had seen on a business trip to England. If memory serves, he was trying to obtain the rights to manufacture or distribute the product in the U.S., but I can't find it in Presto's history, so I assume that didn't work out.

In any event, I haven't seen Mr. Cohen for almost 25 years, but when I saw his obituary, I felt a sense of loss. I always appreciated the fact that he would take an interest in me, even though I could have been nothing more to him than the kid who washed his clubs at the end of a day of golf.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on December 27, 2008 (boomark / email).