From the Maplewood Memorial Library Foundation
Ben Cohen
Ben Cohen moved to Maplewood at the age of three with his parents and baby sister in 1947. His younger brother would arrive three years later. Together, the siblings spent nearly seventy-five years attending South Orange and Maplewood Schools, leaving for college and briefly spending time elsewhere and eventually returning to their beloved town to raise their own families. Over the decades, Ben has lived through Maplewood’s conservative and mostly Republican past to witness what it has become today: a progressive enclave whose diversity and commitment to social change serve as an example for surrounding towns. As a former Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey for twenty-three years, Ben’s longtime commitment to Maplewood has extended to his service on the Board of the Maplewood Memorial Library Foundation.
As a life-long Maplewood resident, do you have a fond memory of visiting the library? Are there any childhood books that come to mind?
My favorite memory of the library was the first day of school in 1956 when I was 12 years old and just starting 7th grade at what was then called Maplewood Junior High School on Baker Street. I looked across the street at our brand new library building which had just been completed, and thought, “Wow!” My favorite childhood books were To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, One, Two, Three, Infinity by Isaac Asimov, and Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
How did you get involved with the Foundation?
About ten years ago, when I was 67 years old, I realized that I had lived in Maplewood for virtually my entire life, and I had never done anything for this town that I loved. I had grown up here, played in all the beautiful parks, gotten an excellent education in the great school system, received scholarships from a local Maplewood men’s club, from Columbia High School and from the State of New Jersey, which enabled me to attend an Ivy League college. So I made up my mind that I was going to start to repay my community for all it had done for me and my family. When I was asked by a Foundation board member if I wanted to get involved in helping the library, I jumped at the opportunity. A few years later when my entire immediate family was inducted into the Columbia High School Hall of Fame (even though none of us are famous), I was so impressed by the student body that my family funded an annual scholarship at Columbia High so that each year a deserving and needy student will receive a modest award to help with the expense of a college education.
What are some skills that you bring from your career as a judge to the Foundation?
There are many traits that a person should have to be a good judge, such as knowledge of the law, ability to write, intelligence, wisdom, and the list goes on and on. But there is only one essential quality that a judge must have in order to be a good judge, and that quality is that a judge must be fair. No matter how many other positive traits a judge may have, if that judge lacks fairness that judge cannot be a good judge. I try to be as fair as I can be while serving on the Library Foundation, just as I tried to be fair as a judge.
Can you name one dream or vision that you have for our library and Maplewood as a whole?
My dream for our new library is that it becomes that shining beacon of light—the intellectual heart of our community, welcoming and open to all, and that it continues to serve the people of Maplewood and our children and grandchildren. As for Maplewood, I hope it continues to be a great hometown and an example to other communities that diversity and democracy can survive and thrive despite the divisive times we are currently experiencing in America.
Do you have a favorite spot in Maplewood where you can read a good book?
My favorite Maplewood spot to read a good book would be in either Memorial Park or Maplecrest Park where I used to play baseball when I was a child.
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To learn more information about the Maplewood Memorial Library Foundation or to donate, please visit our website at https://www.maplewoodlibraryfoundation.org.
