Marquis Who’s Who, a publisher of biographical profiles, has named Florence Emery Cohen a Lifetime Achiever. Cohen is a current resident of Plainsboro and lived for many years in West Windsor.
Individuals profiled by Marquis are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Born in Paterson, Cohen graduated from Temple University earning an degree in history in 1965. That same year she married Harvey Cohen and they have two sons together.
Cohen received fellowships for graduate study from Temple, as well as the University of Delaware and the University of Maryland. She moved to the midwest when her husband got a job in the Chicago area. While working full time at Standard Oil of Indiana in the credit card operation and going to school at night, she obtained another fellowship from the University of Chicago and then graduated with a master’s degree in Social Sciences in 1970.
They returned to the Philadelphia area later that year and she started her career with Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. After many different assignments, she was promoted to product planning manager and began to work in industry meetings as well.
In 1978, Cohen was recruited by the Prudential Life Insurance Company to work in the corporate headquarters in Newark, starting as marketing director in the ordinary agencies department. She held many positions in the company, including vice president enterprise planning and then senior vice president individual pensions in Pruco Life, a Prudential subsidiary. She returned to the main Company in 1993 as vice president and annuity services executive.
After many years in the financial services industry, Cohen’s goal in retirement was to “give back” to her community.
Cohen moved to West Windsor in the early 1990s. She started her own company (Welcoming Services LLC), the purpose of which was to provide new homeowners with community information as well as acquaint them with an array of businesses a new homeowner would need.
She was a Republican committeewoman in West Windsor from 1995-2009, when she became the vice chairman of that group. In addition she served on the West Windsor Affordable Housing Committee from 1997 to 2010, serving as chairman the last two years. As an active member of the Princeton Corridor Rotary Club from 1997 to 2012, she served as chairman of the service committee and on the chapter’s board. She was given a Paul Harris Award in 2007.
Cohen has been a member of Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church for more than 20 years and has served as a deacon as well an elder for three terms including chairman of the mission committee and chairman of congregational life and fellowship committee.
She currently serves as an elder at Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church in West Windsor. She also serves on the finance committee, the marketing and communications committee and the welcoming committee where she and her husband live now in Princeton Windrows.
For more than 19 years, Cohen was a member of the board of directors for Project Freedom (a non-profit that builds housing for the physically disabled as well as offering support services. Having served on the finance committee as well as chairman of the personnel committee, Project Freedom honored her in 2014 with its Angel Award.
Cohen has been selected for inclusion in numerous volumes of Who’s Who in Finance and Business, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who of American Women and the 1987 to 1988 volume of Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders in America.
