‘A kind soul’: Body of Gary Cohen, Alabama father and doctor, found in condo collapse
A chance to visit his ailing, elderly father in Boynton Beach drew Gary Cohen to South Florida during the last week in June from his home in Alabama. The 58-year-old stayed with his younger brother, Brad Cohen, 51, at his condo on the 11th floor of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside.
On Thursday, Miami-Dade police said search and rescue teams recovered Gary’s body on July 7 from the rubble of the collapsed condo building. Brad’s body was also recovered on July 7.
“We are working to bring him back to Birmingham,” Rabbi Yossi Friedman of Chabad of Alabama, who was Gary Cohen’s rabbi, told AL.com. “The whole family’s in shock.”
On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Fire Chief of Operations Ray Jadallah told families of the missing that there is no longer any chance of survival amid the rubble.
“Our sole responsibility at this point is to bring closure, to find your family members — our family members,” he said.
Originally from the Northeast, the Cohen brothers both relocated to the South, both became doctors, and both were devoted fathers to two children each. Gary lived in Birmingham, Alabama, and worked as a psychiatrist at the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Brad had his own orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine practice with offices in North Miami and Miami Beach.
The two were close, said Gary’s son, Jared, 28, and both were religious, attending synagogue regularly and keeping Kosher. Brad’s wife, Soraya, asked for the Jewish community to offer its prayers for Brad using his Jewish name, Yaakov Reuvein Ha-Kohen ben Devorah.
Soraya was staying at a different apartment building in Miami Beach with their 12-year-old daughter on the night that the condo tower collapsed. She last spoke to her husband between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. the night before the collapse before she went to sleep. Brad had been living in the condo building for about six months, she said.
“It’s hard. You’re just thinking about if you could have had a last conversation and what you could have said,” she said. “We’ve been married for 21 years. We’ve had our ups and downs, but it’s family.”
The week after the collapse, Rosana Esther Lerman, a friend of Brad’s who lives in a neighboring condo building, said the two normally crossed paths as Brad was getting in his car to go to work and Lerman went for her daily morning beach walk.
Gary’s wife and children came to South Florida the weekend after the collapse to be closer to the search and rescue effort.
In a heartfelt Facebook post Thursday, Jared’s wife Stephanie said, “There are no words to describe how this feels.”
“He impacted countless lives as a doctor, husband, father, son, and friend,” she wrote. “We will miss and love him forever.”
Gary’s niece Rachel Backal shared a slideshow of photos of him smiling with family members, celebrating special moments.
“He was a man of few but insightful words, as well as having a heart of gold ready to help anyone in need,” she wrote. “My Uncle Gary was such a special individual, with such a kind soul, and the best outlook on life, regardless of the circumstances.”
John Merkle, director of the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said Gary worked there for many years providing care for veterans.
“Dr. Cohen will be missed by our Veterans and staff,” Merkle said in a statement. “Our facility mourns the loss of one of our own and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who knew and loved him.”
Herald reporter Bianca Padró Ocasio contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 11:38 AM.
