Barney M. Cohen

Barney M. Cohen, 59 died Friday, July 25th in Kaiser Medical Center in Santa Clara, CA after a lengthy illness.

He leaves his mother and stepfather, Lillian (Gashin) Goff and Joseph N. Goff of Worcester, a brother Frederick L. Cohen and his wife Randy of Portland, OR, a step-brother Richard J. Goff of Denver, CO, a step-brother-in-law Stephen Shulman of Framingham, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his step sister Karen (Goff) Shulman of Framingham.

He was born in Brookline a son of the late Sidney J. Cohen and was raised in Newton where his interest in scouting (Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Explorer and Eagle Scout) led to his love of the outdoors.

In 1964, Barney moved to Worcester and attended Worcester Academy where he was Valedictorian of his Class. Barney graduated MIT with a BS in physics where he was one of the first inductees into the new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his PHD in Applied Physics at Harvard School of Arts and Sciences. Barney pursued Post Doctoral work in applied physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana.

Barney moved to California in 1980 where he worked in the semi-conductor industry for companies such as AMD and Applied Materials. Barney used Santa Clara as his base for seeing the rest of the world and for pursuing his lifelong passion of mountaineering. This passion took him to the Andes, the Himalayas and the mountains of North America. The summits he reached were Mt. Dixon and Mt. Cook in New Zealand, Mt. Aconcaqua in Argentina, Mt. Huauscaran in Peru, and Mt. Sanborn in Alaska. His most memorable climb was Mt. McKinley in Alaska.

While at Harvard, Barney became interested in learning to play the cello at the Longy School of Music. When he moved to California he performed with the Nova Vista Symphony and was its treasurer and a member of the Board.

The PRIVATE FUNERAL SERVICE will be held at the convenience of the family in Perlman Funeral Home, 1026 Main St., Worcester, MA.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Nova Vista Symphony Assn Inc., PO Box 60312, Sunnyvale, CA 94088-0312.