Laura Propper Cohen

1924 - 2025

Laura (Toby) Propper Cohen

August 14, 1924 - June 21, 2025

Laura (Toby) Propper Cohen died on Saturday, June 21, 2025, at the age of 100. She was born on August 14, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pa., to Alice (Schoen) Propper and William M. Propper.

An avid camper and camp counselor, Toby acquired her lifelong nickname at summer camp at age seven. She graduated from the Women's College of the University of North Carolina - now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Toby met her husband, Bernard Cohen, at a campus social event in 1944. He was then a soldier stationed at nearby Fort Bragg, preparing to go overseas. They were married after the war, in 1947. Their first daughter, Barbara, was born in 1950 in New Haven, Conn. The following year, when Bernie finished his Ph.D., they moved to Princeton, N.J., where their second daughter, Janie, was born in 1956. Three years later, the family moved to Madison.

Toby stayed at home when her children were young. She returned to work in the late 1960s first with Fair Housing, then Head Start, and later the Department of Behavioral Disabilities at UW-Madison. After a year's leave with her husband in Amsterdam in 1975-76, she became the undergraduate advisor in the UW School of Social Work, retiring in 1991.

In 1992, Toby and her husband became "snowbirds," spending the winter months on Longboat Key in Florida, in their condo which their children named "Camp UTobia." In 2016, they returned to Madison year-round, settling in Capitol Lakes, where they found a welcoming community.

With her husband, Bernie, Toby had a large circle of friends and colleagues. She was renowned for her organizing and entertaining and was a one-woman resource center, adept at sharing information and connecting people. She was a wonderful mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, not only to her own, but to others who needed a little extra mothering.

Predeceased by her husband, parents, and her brother, Toby leaves daughters, Barbara Cohen (Shmuel Inbar), and Janie Cohen (Larry Crist); grandchildren, Sara Christopherson (Jonny Hunter), Talia Inbar, Yaniv Inbar (Petra), and Yaara Inbar (Neer Roggel); and great-grandchildren, Marlo, Issa, Miriam, Tamara, and Noah.

Toby's family is deeply grateful to Thandie Hummel of Home Instead, who helped Toby keep moving, eating, and laughing for the last year and a half of her long life.

Contributions may be made to Capital Lakes Foundation in Madison, Wis.