FREDERICK BOHEN

BOHEN--Frederick M.

After a distinguished career in university administration and public service, Frederick Martin Bohen died peacefully at home in Manhattan on March 15, succumbing to progressive lung failure at age 77. In both his personal and professional life, he was admired for his dedication, leadership, kindness and gentlemanly qualities. Before retiring in 2005, Bohen served as Executive VP and COO at Rockefeller University in New York City. His career in academic administration began at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School in 1964. Public service took him to Washington, where he was on the White House domestic policy staff in the Johnson administration, and in the Carter administration at HEW and HHS. In the 1970s he twice ran as a Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey. Bohen resumed academic administration in the early 1980s, first at the University of Minnesota, then at Brown University, and finally at Rockefeller in 1990. Between stints in government and academia, he worked in public television and philanthropy at WNET and the Ford Foundation. He served on various corporate and charitable boards, including: Apache Oil Company; Sallie Mae; the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center; the American Council of Learned Societies; the Polish American Freedom Foundation; and the TEAK Fellowship. Bohen grew up in Ridgewood, NJ, son of Arthur and Lillian Bohen, and brother of Helen B. O'Bannon. He attended Harvard College on an NROTC scholarship, graduating in 1959. After his naval service, he received his Master's in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School in 1966. He is survived by his three daughters, Shawn Jacqueline Bohen, Kim Penelope Bohen and Courtney Lisa Bohen, and eight grandchildren. He was formerly married to Halcyone Harger Bohen of Washington, D.C. Gifts may be made in his memory to the TEAK Fellowship, which helps talented New York City students from low-income families gain admission to top high schools and colleges. He was a long-time Trustee at TEAK. teakfellowship.org.