Elias Surut Cohen, Pennsylvania’s first commissioner on aging, a lifelong advocate for the elderly and disabled, and a former member of the faculty of Penn’s College of Medicine and College of General Studies (CGS), died on November 24, 2020 of an intestinal ailment. He was 93. 

Mr. Cohen was first appointed the state commissioner for aging issues in the Department of Public Welfare in 1959. He held the position until 1968, then served as Pennsylvania’s commissioner of family services. Even outside of these positions, he passionately spoke out to defend the elderly, such as in a prominent 1979 case when nine elderly people died in a fire at an unlicensed nursing home in Connellsville, PA. He testified in several cases related to elderly care, and after receiving a law degree in 1975 from the Temple University Beasley School of Law, specialized in cases in which zoning was used as a weapon to prevent an elderly care facility from opening.

Mr. Cohen joined the faculty of Penn’s College of Medicine in 1970 as an associate professor in Community Medicine and as Penn’s Human Services Project’s director of delivery. The next year he became an assistant professor. After Mr. Cohen received his law degree, his specialty expanded to include law, and in 1979 he became a lecturer in Penn’s College of General Studies, the continuing education division of the College of Arts and Sciences (similar to today’s College of Liberal and Professional Sciences). He lectured at Penn until retiring in 1996; in addition, he also taught at Temple University and the University of Maryland. During his time at Penn, Mr. Cohen served as editor-in-chief of The Gerontologist from 1976 to 1981. 

Services and interment are private. Mr. Cohen is survived by his wife, Marcia Rosen; his sons Barry and Peter; and four grandchildren.