Greta (Shnur) Cohan

On August 1, 2021, Greta (nee Schnur) Cohan passed away peacefully. She was 91 years old.

She was born in White Plains, New York, on September 2, 1929 to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland. She was the second oldest of four children. She was a lifelong learner who loved reading and used her library card frequently from a young age. For her first two years of college, she attended Syracuse University, where she met the love of her life and later married him in 1949. They were an example of what a beautiful and loving relationship looks like for all those around them and would have celebrated 72 years of marriage later this month.

Greta began a family with her husband, and later returned to finish her Bachelor’s degree at Sarah Lawrence College and then a master’s degree. She taught English at Westchester Community College, where she was a beloved and caring professor for thirty-six years. Her office, C10, was often filled with students who looked to her for advice, both for coursework and life while eating cookies and drinking coffee.

Greta loved baking and sweets, listening to classical music, reading, and spending time with her large and loving family. She was a matriarch of her extended family, creating and continuing a tradition to bring them together yearly for Passover. She was a pillar of empathy, kindness, love, and warmth for her community as a professor, wife, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Greta is preceded in death by her parents, Conrad and Ruth Schnur and her sister, Lorraine Cohen. She is survived by her husband, Julian; her sister Anita Chakin and brother Robert Schnur; her children, Richard (Nina), Gerry, and Jody Prysock (Wallace); her grandchildren, Tia Pearson, Adam (Brooke), Alexander, Jennifer Gill (Steven Marin), Lindsey Gill de Nieves (Jorge), Charles (Holly), David, and Rebeka; and her great-grandchildren Isabella, Gabrielle, Skylar, Charlotte, George, Ari, Tristan, and Clara.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Greta Cohan Personal Development Fund at Westchester Community College, which provides scholarship money for graduating students who are continuing their education at a four-year institution. To do so, please visit www.sunywcc.edu/donate, check the box to indicate the gift is in honor, memory or support of someone, and indicate that the donation is in memory of Greta Cohan.