Harry Z. Coren

1937 - 2025

Harry Z. Coren
03/15/1937 - 11/27/2025
Dr. Harry Z Coren was born in what is now Israel on March 15, 1937, and was given the name Tzvi, which later became his middle initial. He arrived in the United States with his parents at Ellis Island on the SS Aquitania on October 6, 1937, and the family settled in Huntington on Long Island.
Harry graduated from Cornell University in 1959 with a degree in Engineering Physics, then earned his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1962. He completed his psychiatric training at Case Western Reserve University and the University of California, San Francisco, and went on to practice as a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in San Francisco for many decades. Colleagues, trainees, and patients remember him as someone who loved his work, listened with care, and helped people make sense of their emotions with patience and compassion.
Harry was the beloved husband of Judith Levine Coren, whose warmth, kindness, and dedication to helping others matched his own. He was a devoted father to daughters Rebecca Coren and Devra Moehler (Wolfgang), and stepdaughter Amy Seff (Jon). He was also a proud grandfather to Nadia Moehler, Livy Seff, and Kyle Seff, who brought him constant joy. He was a cherished uncle to Jonathan and Jessica Vapnek and a great uncle to David Vapnek. Harry was the brother of Pearl Vapnek (Paul) and the son of David Coren and Esther (Abramovich) Coren.
Harry loved playing the violin, skiing, telling jokes and discussing politics (sometimes simultaneously), traveling, playing chess, running the Bay to Breakers and a few marathons, playing with his Old English Sheepdogs, Beowulf and Chaucer, and spending time with family and friends. He was an avid lover of music and held season tickets to the San Francisco Symphony for many years. He had a special talent for making his children feel important by taking them to concerts, retracing history on family vacations abroad, inventing stories to entertain them on chairlifts, and making up songs about them as individuals. He will be remembered for his enthusiastic guitar playing, singing, and dancing, as well as the joyous zest for life and generosity he brought to every gathering.
A chapel service will be held on Thursday, December 4, at 12:30 p.m. at Eternal Home Cemetery, 1051 El Camino Real, Colma, CA 94014.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to UCSF Stanyan Adolescent Psychiatry or the San Francisco Symphony.