David J. Cohen ’69
David J. Cohen was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1949. After spending 5 ½ years there, he re-located to Brooklyn where he spent most of his adolescence until ultimately residing in Huntington at the age of twelve.
Growing up Dave worked as a paperboy and became involved in school sports such as wrestling and Track and Field where he excelled in the 100-yard dash and the 4 × 100 relay while attending SCC. He received the following accolades which ultimately led to him qualifying for the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City. He received the 1968 NJCAA Region XV – record for the 440yd relay in 42.2 seconds breaking a record at SCC. He also received an award for coming in 3rd for running in the 880 relay.
He was also active in the fraternity SIGMA TAU LAMBDA.
Due to a lack of funding and scholarships not being popular for this sport at the time, Dave applied to Stony Brook University and graduated with a Math and Science Degree in 1973.
One year later, he wed Denise Ebert from Long Beach, NY and began working for an insurance company that resulted from a chance encounter due to a traffic violation.
Having a Type-A personality, with an actuary’s mind, assisted Dave to excel in this field where he eventually started his own insurance agency in 1976. A wholesale/General Agency called the DBL Center Ltd which specialized in State Mandated Short Term Disability and niche employee benefit plans.
In 2017, David’s son, Michael Cohen, took over the business at President and CEO, keeping The DBL Center a family-owned and operated wholesale insurance general agency.
Dave had a strong entrepreneurial passion and dedication to succeed but loved to laugh and tell a good joke.
His personal interests involved traveling with his wife and enjoying his time with his two grandchildren Jack and Blake.
Dave passed away at the age of 67, on July 8th, 2017.