Mara Schiff Kohn

1926 - 2018

September 24, 1926 - December 17, 2018 Mara Schiff Kohn, 92, 40-year resident of Santa Barbara, passed away Monday, December 17, in Santa Barbara. Born in Berlin, she escaped Nazi Germany and arrived in New York City in 1940, California in 1959. She worked at the Sunair Home for Asthmatic Children in Tujunga beginning in 1963 and became Director. She was subsequently a teacher and administrator at the Mardan School in Costa Mesa. Mara moved to Santa Barbara in 1978 with her second husband, Walter Kohn, founding director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB. Mara taught ESL and brought the Portraits of Survival project to the Santa Barbara Jewish Federation. From 1990 she managed the legacy of her father, photographer and biologist Roman Vishniac. In 2018 she donated his archive to the UC Berkeley's Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life. Professor Kohn, a 1998 Nobel Laureate, died in 2016. Mara is survived by daughter Naomi Schiff, son Ben Schiff, granddaughters Ruby and Zina Goodall and Melina Schiff. Donations to SB Foodbank, International Rescue Committee, Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara.