When Dr. Richard Cohen (M.D. ’75) began studying medicine, he never imagined he would spend his entire career at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. But five decades later, he is grateful for his long affiliation with the medical college and the hospital and is honored to be selected as the 2025 recipient of the Maurice R. Greenberg Distinguished Service Award.
“I’m just a kid from Long Island,’’ says Dr. Cohen, an attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and a clinical professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. “These institutions have allowed me to have a wonderful career.”
Dr. Cohen with Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian leadership and past Greenberg Award honoree
Dr. Cohen, a longtime member of the Weill Cornell Medicine faculty, currently teaches in the Division of Medical Ethics, helping students and residents understand the complex issues they will encounter during their careers as physicians. He also runs a busy internal-medicine practice on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where patients rely on him to manage all aspects of their care.
“As a primary-care provider, I’m captain of the ship,” he says. “If you’re a surgeon and you operate on my patient, you’re going to let me know what’s going on. And you can expect me to be actively advocating for that patient.”
He also makes sure he spends plenty of time with patients, so that he can clarify areas of uncertainty and ease any concerns.
“My mother taught me that if people aren’t better off for having been with you, then you blew it,’’ he adds. “That’s an important part of doing primary care: Everyone who comes to you should leave better off than they were before.”
Dr. Cohen’s philosophy of patient care is simple: Listen carefully to what the patient is telling you and synthesize their words with your own medical expertise. “People share things with you that they don’t share with anyone else. My so-called ‘greatest diagnoses’ have been when I’ve said to myself, ‘Now something doesn’t make sense here,’ and then you push until it does.”
Known for his devotion to patients and his 24-hour availability, even on weekends, Dr. Cohen has legions of grateful patients who have made gifts in his honor, including the Richard P. Cohen, M.D. Professorship of Medical Education.
But as thankful as he is for the recognition, Dr. Cohen doesn’t expect anything in return for his dedication.
“I think one of the most rewarding things you can experience as a general internist is when a patient comes in and says, ‘Last year, you told me to do X, Y and Z, and that made a big difference,’ ” he says.
Dr. Cohen has a long history of involvement with both NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine. He served for more than 40 years as chair of the Department of Medicine’s Quality Assurance Committee and is the longest serving member of NewYork-Presbyterian’s Legal Affairs Committee. He is also a former member of the Weill Cornell Medicine Board of Fellows, having served from 2005 to 2008.
His passion for medicine took root when he was a fifth grader who was fascinated by the ambulances that passed through his Mineola neighborhood. An avid fan of the medical TV shows “Dr. Kildare” and “Ben Casey,” he completed his pre-med studies at Clark orderly at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset – stepping stones to his ultimate destination: Weill Cornell Medicine.
After graduating in 1975, he did his residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he also completed a fellowship in infectious diseases. He served as the hospital’s first full-time director of the medical intensive care unit and the medical emergency room before joining a general primary-care medical practice in 1981.
Dr. Cohen with his wife, Libby Cohen
Dr. Cohen met his wife, Libby, more than 54 years ago, when she was a year behind him at Clark. The couple were married between his first and second years of medical school and have two adult children – a son, Aaron, a television writer and producer, and a daughter, Melanie, a reading specialist – and four granddaughters.
Libby Cohen has been a steadfast source of strength throughout their marriage, he says – a supportive partner who took care of managing the kids’ schedules when they were growing up so that he could concentrate on his work. She also juggled handling all the non-medical aspects of his practice and putting her master’s in college counseling to use by helping students apply to college and graduate school, primary medical school.
“My wife never frowned at me if I had to leave on a Saturday afternoon to go to the hospital,’’ says Dr. Cohen. “And she never scolded me for coming home late. She just thought that’s what doctors do.”
Together, the pair have made it a priority to support Weill Cornell Medicine, donating generously over the years and establishing the Libby and Richard P. Cohen, M.D. ’75 Scholarship, which provides financial assistance to students who might otherwise be unable to afford medical school. Many donors have contributed to this scholarship in Dr. Cohen’s honor.
As an alumnus, Dr. Cohen believes it’s important to support the institution that set him on the path to becoming a physician and has nurtured him for most of his adult life. “You just take a couple of days less of vacation and instead, you make a charitable donation,’’ he says. “If you’re successful, give back.”
Dr. Cohen with classmate Dr. David Blumenthal (M.D. ’75)
He still has fond memories of his time in medical school and is close with classmates, including Dr. David Blumenthal (M.D. ’75), a fellow Greenberg honoree who recently reminded Dr. Cohen why he was deserving of one of NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine’s highest accolades.
“I asked Dave, ‘Why are they giving me this award?’ and his comment to me was: ‘You’ve never asked for anything. You’ve only given,’ ” says Dr. Cohen.
And while he is thrilled and profoundly honored to receive the Greenberg Distinguished Service Award, Dr. Cohen remains humble. He looks forward to continuing to take scrupulous care of his patients and steering them toward the best possible outcomes.
“I’m just a local doctor,’’ he says.