William J. Cohen papers

The materials include maps, correspondence, reports, photographs, slides, transparencies, reference files, professional files, reports, studies, plans, technical library, printed materials, videotapes, audiotapes, computer disks, company checks, newspaper clippings, ephemera, deeds, and business cards. The collection contains a large amount of oversized materials, especially maps. It also includes files that were tangential to his planning career.

These materials are a historical record of planning in the State of Delaware. Cohen’s career as a city and regional planner started at the end of the 1960s and spanned three decades of significant and volatile legislative policies about land use, community development, environmental impact, coastal management, commercial revitalization, historic preservation, and riverfront planning and development.

Cohen’s first job as a professional planner was with the Delaware State Planning Office (Boxes 1-3). This position was the genesis of his lifelong devotion to the environment, land use, and preservation. The assignments, individual contacts, and projects that he coordinated and implemented were invaluable steppingstones, and were the basis for his thirty-four-year career as an urban planner in Delaware. Cohen’s legacies are numerous from the tip of Cape Henlopen in Delaware’s southernmost county to the development of Wilmington’s waterfront in the northernmost county.

The collection, which is housed in 37 boxes, is arranged in seven series. Series I-V, which is the bulk of the papers, show each step of Cohen’s planning career from 1967-2001 (Boxes 1-18). During this time he held positions with the State of Delaware, the City of Newark, and was self-employed for sixteen of the thirty-four years. Series VI-VII covers his final years in Delaware as a consultant and contains materials that were part of his personal and professional life (Boxes 18-19). For twenty-three years he taught in the Geography Department at the University of Delaware (Box 12). From 1978-2001 Cohen developed and taught eleven courses, including some for the Honor’s Program. He also worked for the Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc. (Wilmington and Western Railroad) and Cecil County Arts Council (Box 19). During his last few years in Delaware, Cohen resigned from the State, was a city and regional planning consultant, and was matriculating as a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania (Box 18). When he left Delaware in 2001 to work in Bar Harbor, Maine, he was working on his dissertation.

The collection also houses a technical library, which Cohen originally created at the Delaware State Planning Office. The library, which grew over his career, is included in Appendices A and B (Boxes 20-33).

For more than three decades Cohen worked in Delaware as a city and regional planner. He developed an expertise in natural resources and the environment, planning and the application of its theory, recreation and open space, and community development. He participated in numerous professional associations (Boxes 18-19) and watchdog groups such as the Christina Conservancy (Box 11), Friends Society of Brandywine Park (today called Friends of Wilmington Park) (Box 19), and Citizens for White Clay Creek (Boxes 10-11). This collection reflects the depth of Cohen’s legacy to the citizens of Delaware.

Series I covers the years 1967-1977 and Cohen’s first and second jobs as a planner. He began in 1967 at the Delaware State Planning Office. He was assigned significant projects including the development of a comprehensive plan for the City of Lewes. This project included the “great sand dune” controversy (1970) which involved Governor Russell W. Peterson and other key public officials. Many of these early contacts served as mentors and later as colleagues and employers. Another assignment was the review of educational institutions under the Capital Budget and Capital Improvements Program. He worked with the University of Delaware, Delaware Technical and Community College, Delaware State College (University), and Delaware Department of Public Instruction (Boxes 1-3). This series also contains materials about Cohen’s job as planning director for the City of Newark (1971-1977). This six-year period was filled with of significant accomplishments and controversies. Under his leadership Newark’s and the State’s first flood-plain ordinance was passed. In addition, Delaware’s first bike-path system was created. Two important and controversial issues were debated during his time: the location of the Newark Beltway and a proposed development known as Hidden Valley (Boxes 3-4).

Series II covers Cohen’s career as a consultant, which spans the years 1977-2001. This series is a major portion of the collection (Boxes 5-12). Cohen was self-employed for sixteen of those years either as a sole proprietor or as president of his own corporation. In 1977 he left the City of Newark and became a planning consultant. Within a year the business had grown enough for him to incorporate as William J. Cohen and Associates, Inc. The files contain his “planner-on-call” concept, which was a creative approach to offering planning services to smaller communities. His company had contracts with an array of entities in Delaware including cities, municipalities, counties, and state agencies. He also had a few non-governmental clients (e.g., individuals, companies, nonprofit organizations, and schools). Among significant projects were the Delaware City Coastal Energy Impact Study (1981-1982), Lewes Coastal Impact Study (1979-1980), documentation of Port Mahon Lighthouse (1983), implementation of a Sussex County Community Development Grant (1977-1980), and a Feasibility Study for a Revolving Historic Preservation Fund (1978-1979). During this time he became an advocate to preserve the White Clay Creek. His effort along with many community partners resulted in 2001 with the Creek’s inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic River Program.

Series III contains materials relating to Cohen’s twenty-three years as an instructor for the University of Delaware’s Department of Geography. The files include syllabi and a course list (Box 12).

Series IV summarizes Cohen’s accomplishments as a photographer. His professional interests in photography crystallized in the years after a workshop on cyanotype and Van Dyke techniques (also called non-silver imagery). He began to exhibit his work in the early 1980s, and by the mid-1980s he began to pursue actively a tangential career in commercial photographic services. From 1987-1996 Cohen opened a photographic studio, specializing in construction progress and architecture (Boxes 12-13).

Series V is found in Boxes 13-18, and contains the years that Cohen returned to work for the State of Delaware. In 1990 he was hired as a senior resources planner at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The next eight years proved to be prolific and Cohen contributed vastly to land use planning, waterfront revitalization, and public policy. With the recommendation of former Governor Russell W. Peterson, Cohen was appointed executive director of the Governor’s Task Force on the Future of the Brandywine and Christina Rivers (1992-1994). He worked closely with co-chairmen Peterson and the University of Delaware’s President Emeritus E. Arthur Trabant. They coordinated a large task force to recommend “A Vision for the Rivers” (1994). In 1995 Cohen was part of the Governor’s Brandywine and Christina Transition Team, which produced a final report, Implementing a Vision for the Rivers. This series also contains the materials that Cohen amassed as an application for the Profile in Courage Award. Cohen compiled the application and supporting materials to nominate Governor Russell W. Peterson for his dedication to the creation and implementation of Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act. Other work accomplished during this time was focused on the Nanticoke Watershed and the twenty-year assessment of the Coastal Zone Act. In 1993 Cohen was selected to be a Governor’s Management Fellow. All the documents from this experience are included (Box 15). This series also contains materials from conferences and workshops that Cohen attended throughout the eight years at the State. In 1998 he resigned from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

Series VI covers Cohen’s last few years in Delaware. He was matriculating as a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania and resigned from the State to complete his dissertation. At the same time he became a sole proprietor as a city and regional planner. The files contain some research papers that Cohen completed at the University of Pennsylvania. He held a MA granted in 1976 from the University of Delaware. As part of a joint degree program, the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon Cohen a Master of City Planning (MCP) in 1999, a Master of Arts in City Planning (2001), and the Ph.D. in 2003.

Series VII consists of materials from Cohen’s personal and professional life, additional employment, professional affiliations, business cards, a city planning game, and his thesis as part of the Master of Arts degree granted by the University of Delaware in 1976 (Box 19). Additionally, there are newspaper clipping files that cover the years 1977-1986.

Concluding the collection is the Technical Library that Cohen created at the Delaware State Planning Office and maintained throughout his career in Delaware. The library has a guide, which includes an introduction, shelf guide, and description of the classification system (Box 4, F116). The Technical Library has been put into a database and materials can be accessed by author, title, date, call number, and publisher. Cohen developed a library classification system based on one used at the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. He adapted the system for use by subject, and his entire classification system is explained in the guide. Cohen still owns a portion of the library. He gave the University a major portion of its content in 2001; a portion housed at the White Clay Creek Preserve in 1995 is now reunited with this collection. In 1982 Cohen donated some consulting project reports to the University of Delaware's Morris Library. This list can be found with the guide in Box 4 (F116). The portion of the library housed in The Cohen Papers is listed in the Technical Library series at the end of the collection. The Techical Library is presented alphabetically by author, to mirror its physical housing.