Elaine Cogan became the leader of whatever organization she was a part of. Cogan was an author, journalist, and civic leader who had a significant influence on her Portland town. At the age of 92, she passed away on December 18.
Cogan grew up in Brighton Beach, a largely Jewish area in Brooklyn, where he was born. In an interview with the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Cogan stated that the setting was extremely safe.
Cogan remembers her grandparents sobbing as she read about the war in the papers as a child during World War II.
Belle and Lou Rosenberg were Cogan’s parents. Carole was her younger sister. Her father made fur coats, and her mother worked as a secretary.
Cogan read a lot of books. She had pen friends across the nation. Cogan’s ultimate writing career began in an auspicious way when her mother encouraged her to write a piece for Seventeen Magazine while she was a freshman in high school. In terms of supporting me, I couldn’t have asked for nicer parents, Cogan remarked.
Cogan was happy when her parents made the decision to move to Portland following her first year of high school. “I had a strong desire to leave Brooklyn,” she stated.
Her parents boarded a train to Oregon after selling all they owned. After leaving Brooklyn, they relocated to a home in the Portland suburbs. She claimed that there were no Jewish neighbors and no way to purchase kosher meat.
Archive of Elaine and Arnold Cogan
Before starting at Lincoln High School, Cogan spent a year at Gresham High School. I ended up working on the school newspaper, which was very important to me. She said that I was the editor.
Cogan went to a dance hosted by a Jewish sorority in 1949, when she was a junior in high school. She met a boy that night. I met this really sweet boy from Bath, Maine named Arnie, she wrote in her diary, recounting the incident. I’m hoping to see him once more.
Her wish was fulfilled a few days later. She had been recruited to be a camp counselor for a Jewish day camp. He had been hired by the same camp. Not too long after, while the pair were canoeing in Lake Oswego, he asked her out on a date. They fell in love and were wed in 1952, remaining married until his death in 2023.
Cogan attended Vanport College, now Portland State University, where she studied English and served as editor of the nascent school newspaper. Cogan got her first taste of politics while a student there. I was on a committee to get the legislators to give us permanent status. … We lobbied every legislator in Salem.
After transferring to Oregon State University, to be nearer to her future husband, Cogan studied home economics. I was the only one who didn t know how to thread the needle in the sewing machine, she said. It was the first time in her life she was not a straight-A student. She met with the dean of students who allowed her to drop home economics and take classes that appealed to her. So she took history and English classes, at one point studying under the writer Bernard Malamud.
Archive of Elaine and Arnold Cogan
Cogan graduated in 1954 and moved to Portland with her husband. She noticed that the Oregon Journal lacked a column on public affairs and approached the editor to write one. While staying at home to raise her three children, she wrote freelance articles for the Oregon Journal and later The Oregonian for 15 years. She covered a whole wide range of issues in the government and the legal system, said her son, Mark Cogan.
In 1961, the Cogans built their home in Mount Tabor.
She became president of the League of Women Voters and was heavily involved with Lyndon B. Johnson s Model Cities Program, which was part of his war on poverty. I got to know everybody who was anybody in political life in the city, she said. The whole idea was to bring minorities together, education, economic development jobs. … That was one of the pivotal experiences of my life.
On the strength of her work with the Model Cities Program, she was appointed to the Portland Development Commission, serving as its first female chair in 1973. I was imbued with the Model Cities spirit and I wanted to make sure that we continued to serve underserved people. I opened up our meetings so that people would feel comfortable speaking to us, she said.
In 1975, Cogan and her husband launched a consulting business, geared towards public policy. She got hired to advise various local governments in their strategic planning, Mark Cogan said. A lot of these government leaders and business leaders were very uneasy about public speaking, and so she would coach them in private about how they could deliver their speeches more effectively. She would get hired by these elected officials and business leaders to help them craft their presentations.
Elaine and Arnold CoganFamily archive
Cogan became an unofficial adviser to those serving in office. She was top adviser to many of the notable Oregon politicians and elected officials like Vera Katz and Barbara Roberts, Mark Cogan said of the former Portland mayor and Oregon governor.
Drawing on her experience helping government and business leaders, Cogan wrote books. She co-authored a book called You Can Talk to (Almost) Anyone about (Almost) Anything, a Speaking Guide for Business and Professional People. She wrote Successful Public Meetings and Now That You re on Board: How to Survive and Thrive as a Planning Commissioner.
Cogan and her husband were confirmed tea drinkers. One year, on a trip to the Northeast, they noticed a paucity of good tea in the region. She wrote a letter to The New York Times bemoaning the situation, which was published. I got phone calls and letters from people all over the country, she said. The Times wrote an editorial about her. It inspired Cogan and her husband to launch a mail order tea business called Elaine s Tea Co. The business lasted three years. We had orders but we just couldn t sustain it, she said. A version of her tea is stillsoldby Harney & Sons.
Cogan was a sought-after political commentator on KGW-TV. My job was to prognosticate before the elections and during the elections, she said. Before anyone else, she correctly predicted that Ron Wyden would beat Gordon Smith in his bid for U.S. Senate.
Elaine and Arnold CoganFamily archive
Wyden recalled Cogan s impact in Portland: Elaine leaves an indelible legacy of accomplishment that transformed both the Jewish community in Portland and our entire city into better places for everybody with her many civic contributions and skills as an author and journalist. But my lasting memories of Elaine are just as much of her grace, good humor and kindness that made her like a second mom to me. She was always there for me and countless others to offer both a nosh and her good counsel. I will miss Elaine tremendously but take comfort amid the sadness that she and her beloved Arnold are now reunited.
For seven years, Cogan hosted a Sunday morning talk show on KGW radio. She would have guests on diverse range of subjects, usually related to public policy or things of public interest, Mark Cogan said.
Cogan influenced the Jewish community of Portland, serving on the board of the Neveh Shalom Synagogue as its first female president. She was also involved with Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and the Jewish Review.
In her free time, Cogan baked. That s my weekend pleasure. Sunday afternoon I bake bread, she said. She forged family traditions that lasted for decades: hosting Shabbat dinners and Passover seders, taking her children to Ashland every year for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, to the Rose Festival parade, or to see the fireworks on July 4.
She was fiercely determined, Mark Cogan said. She had a great passion for being in a leadership role. Any organization or body that she was affiliated with, she would always be the leader.
She is survived by her sister, Carole Furie; her children, Mark Cogan, Sue Van Brocklin, and Leonard Cogan; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will take place at 11:45 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 22, at Congregation Neveh Shalom, 2900 S.W. Peaceful Lane in Portland.
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