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Obituary:
Gerald Allen Cohen, 83, passed away Oct. 1, 2014, at his home in Laguna Beach.
Cohen was born March 5, 1931, in St. Louis, Mo., to Benjamin and Leah Cohen.
He was a remarkable mathematician and a very talented engineer who contributed greatly to the U.S. space program and several other engineering projects.
His academic pursuits began in 1948 at Purdue University. A full scholarship brought him to the California Institute of Technology for post-graduate work and he returned to Purdue to receive his Ph.D in mechanical engineering by the age of 25. Interest in post-Ph.D math studies brought him to Brown University and later he was a professor of mathematics at Virginia Tech University.
After working for Ford Aeronutronics, Cohen started his own company, Structures Research Associates. There he developed the software program FASOR (Field Analysis of Shells of Revolution) which he contracted to NASA, Ball Corporation, and others. He was known by his colleagues as the best in his field and by his sons and their peers as a math and physics homework tutor.
Athletic and competitive, Cohen was an avid baseball fan, partial to the St. Louis Cardinals, as he made it past the team’s first cuts in his youth when the Cardinals were then known as the St. Louis Browns. The highlight of his every year was his Alaskan/Canadian fishing trip with his son, Gerald.
Cohen is survived by his wife, Eivor; four sons, Ben, Ron, Gerald and Steve; grandson, Jaden; brothers Ray and Stan; and many friends.
A private memorial service at sea was held Oct. 11, 2014, off the coast of San Pedro, Calif.
Selected Publications:
Cohen, G. A., "Computer Analysis of Asymmetric Free Vibrations of Ring Stiffened Orthotropic Shells of Revolution," AIAA Journal, Vol. 3, No. 12, 1965, pp. 2305-2312.
G. A. Cohen, “Conservativeness of a normal pressure field acting on a shell”, AIAA J. Vol. 4, 1966, pp. 1886-1887
Cohen, G. A., "Buckling of Axially Compressed Cylindrical Shells with Ring-Stiffened Edges," AIAA Journal, Vol. 4, Oct. 1966, pp. 1859-1862.
Cohen, G. A., "User Document for Computer Programs for Ring-Stiffened Shells of Revolution," NASA CR-2086, 1973; "Computer Analysis of Ring-Stiffened Shells of Revolution," NASA CR-2085, 1973; "Computer Program for Analysis of Imperfection Sensitivity of Ring-Stiffened Shells of Revolution," NASA CR-1801, 1971.
G.A. Cohen, “Feasibility study of shell buckling analysis using the modified structure method”, 1972, NASA
(no other details nor abstract is given).
Gerald A. Cohen (Structures Research Associates, Laguna Beach, Calif., U.S.A.), “Analysis of multicircuit shells of revolution by the field method”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Vol. 8, No. 3, July-August 1976, pp. 301-318, doi:10.1016/0045-7825(76)90020-7
Gerald A. Cohen (Structures Research Associates, Laguna Beach, California, USA), “Transverse shear stiffness of laminated anisotropic shells”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Vol. 13, No. 2, February 1978, pp. 205-220, doi:10.1016/0045-7825(78)90058-0
Gerald A. Cohen (Structures Research Associates, Laguna Beach, California, USA), “FASOR — a program for stress, buckling and vibration of shells of revolution”, Advances in Engineering Software (1978), Vol. 3, No. 4, October 1981, pp.155-162, doi:10.1016/0141-1195(81)90013-9
Gerald A. Cohen (Structures Research Associates, Laguna Beach, California, U.S.A.), “FASOR—A second generation shell of revolution code”, Computers & Structures, Vol. 10, Nos. 1-2, April 1979, pp. 301-309,
doi:10.1016/0045-7949(79)90099-3
Gerald A. Cohen (Structures Research Associates Laguna Beach, California, U.S.A.), “Comment on: Note on the effect of transverse shear deformation in laminated anisotropic plates : (by E. Reissner and published in this journal, vol. 20 (1979) 203–209)”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Vol. 20, No. 2, November 1979, p. 211, doi:10.1016/0045-7825(79)90019-7
Gerald A. Cohen (Structures Research Associates, Laguna Beach, Calif, U.S.A.), “Buckling of laminated anisotropic shells including transverse shear deformation”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Vol. 26, No. 2, May 1981, pp.197-204, doi:10.1016/0045-7825(81)90094-3
Gerald A. Cohen (Structures Research Associates Laguna Beach, California), “Effect of Transverse Shear Deformation on Anisotropic Plate Buckling”, Journal of Composite Materials, 1982 , vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 301-312, doi: 10.1177/002199838201600404
Gerald A. Cohen (1) and Raphael T. Haftka (2)
(1) Structures Research Associates, Laguna Beach, CA 92651, U.S.A.
(2) Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, U.S.A
“Sensitivity of buckling loads of anisotropic shells of revolution to geometric imperfections and design changes”, Computers & Structures, Vol. 31, No. 6, 1989, pp. 985-995, doi:10.1016/0045-7949(89)90283-6
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