Richard M. Cohen, an outspoken and award-winning television news producer whose career was eventually derailed by the ravages of multiple sclerosis, which he wrote about in a best-selling memoir, died on Dec. 24 in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., a village in Westchester County. He was 76.
His wife, the former “Today” show host Meredith Vieira, said his death, in a hospital, was caused by acute respiratory failure.
Mr. Cohen spent more than 20 years in the news business, working with luminaries like Ted Koppel at ABC and Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather at CBS. But he tackled a different subject when he wrote a memoir — and articles for HuffPost, The New York Times and other outlets — about dealing with M.S., a degenerative disease of the central nervous system.
Mr. Cohen was diagnosed with M.S. in 1973, when he was 25 and helping to create a documentary for PBS about the politics of disability.
Despite diminishing eyesight, which turned into legal blindness, and worsening balance, which caused falls that made him appear inebriated to the uninformed, he worked into the mid-1990s as a producer for CBS News, CNN, PBS (again) and FX.
His other books included “Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness,” “Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
He is survived by his wife, Mooerrie; sons, Gabe, Ben, and Thomas; daughters, Lily and Robin; grandson, Timothy; and brother, Jack.
Source link
