Lester S. Cohen | Chemist, 84

Lester S. Cohen, 84, a retired chemist, died of kidney failure Sunday at the Quadrangle, a retirement community in Haverford.

His daughter Celia Cohen said that from 1964 until he retired in 1989, Mr. Cohen worked in DuPont Co. laboratories, first in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia and then in Wilmington.

A Philadelphia native, Mr. Cohen graduated from West Philadelphia High School in 1942 and served as an Army medical laboratory technician during World War II.

His daughter said that Mr. Cohen was on a ship that took troops from Cardiff, Wales, to Omaha Beach on D-Day.

His ship arrived about noon on the first day of the invasion, she said. "He was part of the crew on the ship that took care of the wounded as they were bringing them back" from the beachhead, she said.

At what is now the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1949, graduating first in his class.

At the University of Delaware, he earned a master's degree in 1950 and a doctorate 1952, both in chemistry.

Until he joined Du Pont, his daughter said, he and his brother Eugene operated their own testing firm.

Besides his daughter Celia, Mr. Cohen is survived by his wife of 61 years, Selma, and a daughter, Bobbi.

The funeral will be at noon today at Joseph Levine & Son, 2811 West Chester Pike, Broomall, with burial in Haym Salomon Memorial Park, Frazer.