We remember alumnus Harry P. Cohany (MA ’52) who passed away in 2018. Born in 1921, Cohany’s journey to UT Knoxville was a bit unusual. He grew up in what is now Klaipeda, Lithuania, and emigrated to New York in 1939. After service in the Ninth Army Air Force in western Europe, he earned a BA at the New School for Social Research in New York City, then relocated to Knoxville for graduate work.

He spoke fondly of his time at UT on the GI Bill, the professors, and community. On a visit to campus decades later, he discovered a plaque with his name among the founders of a political science honor society.

Cohany served as an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 30 years, retiring as chief of the Division of Industrial Relations. He authored numerous articles and other publications and mentored many younger colleagues.

In mid-career, he earned an MPA from Harvard. In his next career, he was an adjunct professor with several universities in the Washington DC area and a volunteer with the Better Business Bureau’s mediation program. His master’s thesis, “The Labor Relations Program of the United States Atomic Energy Commission,” is available in the department’s main office.