Kenneth Cohen, chairman of the Rosedale-Skinker Association is a young old-timer in the neighborhood. He lived on Delmar as a youngster and his wife had lived on Waterman. After schooling in Ladue and Kansas City, he attended Duke University in North Carolina, then returned to St. Louis to work for Glasco Electric Company.
While living in an apartment on Laurel and tutoring at the Hamilton V.I.P. program, he became re-acquainted with the neighborhood. When he and Nancy decided to buy a house, they wanted to stay on in the neighborhood and now live on McPherson with a large friendly puppy and a remarkably friendly cat, who tolerate each other gingerly.
Ken thought that Rosedale-Skinker had no unique problems, only those of the entire area. As far as priorities went, he put the improvement of the public school (Hamilton School) at the top of his list. “Good people are moving into the neighborhood and they are entitled to something better than the Board of Education is supplying in this school district.”
Equally important, he said, were that reliable real estate companies and all local institutions take a positive attitude toward the Rosedale-Skinker area. City and federal officials, banks, and savings and loan companies, the Board of Education, have ignored or written off this neighborhood for too long.
Ken’s wife, Nancy, is the force behind the drive to recycle cans, bottles, and papers with the proceeds going to the SDCC. Asked about hobbies, Ken remarked, “I used to have a lot of hobbies, but now neighborhood projects keep me busy.”
Originally published in The Paper, February 1972.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1972_02.pdf, printed page 4.
