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Dr. Walter Cohen was born and educated in Philadelphia, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and earning a D.D.S. from the School of Dentistry there in 1950. He joined Penn’s dental faculty in 1951, serving as Dean from 1972 to 1983. A leader in dental medicine and periodontics, his long career spans his field in teaching, writing, and research.
Honors include numerous honorary degrees, guest lectureships and consultantships. He was named a member of the Central High School Hall of Fame in 1972, and a member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, in 1980. He chaired the American Board of Periodontology in 1971-72, the National Academy of Practice for Dentistry, and was President of the American Society of Periodontists (1966-67). Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where Dr. Cohen served on the Board of Governors, honored him with an honorary Ph.D., as well as the Betty and Walter Cohen Chair in Periodontal Research. He was the co-founder of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program, and founding President of the Friends of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Ambassador Walter Annenberg endowed the D. Walter Cohen Professorship and Chair in Periodontics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1992.
Dr. Cohen joined the MCP faculty in 1973. He assumed the MCP presidency in 1986, and was made Chancellor in 1993, guiding the College to the then-new Queen Lane campus, through the merger with Hahnemann, and the development of Drexel University College of Medicine. His leadership and determined loyalty to the goals and spirit of MCP, and of women in medicine, have insured the legacy of the College for generations to come.