Occidental man finds purpose in the sky, exam room and vineyard

Former combat pilot turned doctor Sol Cohen, who died Thursday at 96 allegedly at the hands of his in-home caretaker, told his amazing life story to the PD in 2013.

Originally published April 7, 2013

Solomon "Sol" Cohen is 93. He lives on 5 acres, mostly vineyard, outside of Occidental and can look back on a life well lived.

Born in Baltimore, which he still likes to call "Bal-more," Cohen lost his father when he was a child. He didn't get to taste the famous Maryland crab cakes until he became a rebellious teenager.

"My mother kept a strict kosher kitchen. I finally told her that if she made boiled chicken one more time I wouldn't eat it, so she roasted it," he said.

Cohen went to college and had begun teaching elementary school when Pearl Harbor happened.

"I heard Roosevelt's famous speech about the day of infamy, and the next day I went to enlist. I didn't tell my mother before I did it, knowing she would tear her hair and cry," he said.

He found he was not the only one so inspired.

"The line to enlist at the civic center went around the block. The entire country reacted as one. After I told my mother, it was too late for crying so she just said, 'Do you have to go?' I told my brother to take care of her. He had a congenital defect, and the Army wouldn't take him."

Cohen was sent to Texas for basic training. He had never been west of Maryland.

There, a colonel came into a class one day and asked if anyone was interested in becoming a bombardier.

"I thought to myself, I can get Hitler myself. My hand went up so fast it wasn't funny," he recalled.

After armament school in Denver, he was sent into combat in north Africa. His plane was a B-26 Martin Marauder.

"The nickname of the plane was the Flying Prostitute because it was fast and had no visible means of support. The B-26 had the shortest wingspan in the service."

Cohen served, fighting the Desert Fox General Rommel's army. Eventually he was sent on to Sicily and Sardinia. It was dangerous service with German fighter planes attacking the bombers continually. Many of his crewmates were wounded.

"I was lucky. The worst that happened was that shrapnel tore the sleeve of my flight jacket. I still have that flight jacket," he said. He and his B-26 successfully flew 40 missions.

After 40 missions, the Army sent plane crews home. Cohen used his GI Bill benefits to go to medical school in Denver, turning from soldiering to healing. There, he met his wife Beatrice, a physical therapist also going to the school.

"I was in a crowded classroom, and this statuesque, beautiful woman walked in. Fortunately, the only empty seat was next to me. I worked up the nerve to ask her out at the end of class, and much to my surprise she accepted," he said.

"Eventually, I asked her to marry me while we were sitting in a car, and she surprised me again when she accepted."

Cohen became a pediatrician, and he and Beatrice settled in

Marin County after discovering Northern California on a visit. On his retirement from San Francisco's Kaiser Hospital, they moved to Sonoma County and planted a vineyard.

After 37 years of marriage and two children, Philip and Betsy, Beatrice died of cancer. Years later, Cohen remarried, divorcing after seven years, but in the process he acquired stepchildren Nick, Joe and Kate, who remain very close with him.

Stepson Joe Sybrian, 27, is Cohen's caretaker. "He's just always been my dad," Sybrian said.

The vineyards are leased out, but for a while they produced the grapes for an award-winning Merry Edwards wine.

"I had to laugh. A boy from Bal-more becoming a farmer. It was something I always wanted to do," Cohen said.

These days he is content to simply watch the farming happen. He also likes television, especially Westerns and history programs.

"History has always been a major interest," he said.

And Cohen reads a lot, especially Native American history books. One of his books is called "B-26 Marauder at War" by Roger Freeman, which includes a history of the Flying Prostitutes.

One of the pictures in it is of Cohen and his crew as they flew their 40 missions to rid the world of Hitler.