When David Cohen ’88 ’19P went on his first date with Heidi Lynn Cohen ’88 ’19P, he asked her a loaded question. She had won the Lehigh University Service Award her senior year. But she shared the award with another recipient. He wondered if she knew who else won. She had no idea it was him.
Fast forward to today. His framed award certificate hangs alongside hers in their home office. While David might still needle her about how he truly won with some flimsy excuses (because C comes before L in the alphabet), their partnership is one of love, fun, family, and competition.
Award night
David: She didn’t remember that I won.
Heidi: I didn’t plan on going to the awards ceremony. I was the property master for the Mustard and Cheese. We had a show that night. When the dean of students called to encourage me to attend, I said I would run over to the UC for that part of the ceremony. I did. Got my award and then headed right back to Wilbur Powerhouse.
David: My parents were there, and my mom framed the certificate.
Heidi: My parents received a letter about the award ceremony and my contribution to student life. I had no idea the university notified them. When I got home that summer, it was framed on the wall by our kitchen.
Active leadership on campus
David: I was a Gryphon my sophomore year and very involved in student activities.
Heidi: I was very active as well in everything but participating in sports. My engineering major also kept me very busy.
David: When Pennsylvania changed the social host drinking laws, I became tasked with creating programming on the weekends.
Heidi: I was in a sorority. I participated on the panhellenic council (representing all the sororities on campus). I was Panhel president my junior/senior year. At that point we had 32 fraternities and six sororities on campus. We needed to find new ways to socialize, redefining what it meant to have a good time and learning how to look out for each other.
While some folks may not agree, there is a great value in Greek life. It was there that I learned to be a leader in part from holding a variety of roles, managing people and budgets, running meetings with Robert’s Rules of Order, and trying to be a positive force. It could no longer be the same free for all, or our chapters and our institution would face serious risks.
David: I created a program called Twilight that brought in comedians and concerts and was the first on-campus pub-like environment. We originally started in Rathbone Hall on weekends. I traveled all over the country to evaluate talent and select campus events and activities. We had Chris Rock on campus — he looked 12 years old. I also helped organize battle of the bands competitions for Lehigh groups.
Heidi: I went to some of those Twilight events. Panhel provided volunteers for events like this to set up, serve food, clean up, etc.
David: But we didn’t really know each other back then or run in the same circles.
Heidi: We both sat on the dean of students’ Council of Student Presidents. We were tasked with altering a campus culture — a tremendous responsibility at a young age. But our choice at the time was to work with the administration, not against them. They let us figure things out and let us run with it.
Dating
David: After Lehigh, I went to law school in Washington, D.C.
Heidi: I took a job after graduation as a sales engineer and applied to law schools.
David: She came to D.C. to look for apartments after being accepted in a program and a mutual friend, who was also on the Council of Student Presidents, connected us.
Heidi: You and your roommate put me up for the night I was in town.
David: I don’t even think I was around. When we started to date, I asked my question about the award.
Heidi: Then your cousin told your mother about me.
David: My mom was down here within days to meet you and grill me for not telling her.
Heidi: Your mother and I have been a united front since.
Cooking
David: We stayed competitive. I love to cook. In the mid-1990s we went on a Food Network show called Ready, Set, Cook. We were each paired with a famous French chef, given a $10 budget and a short time to cook. We were paired with Alain Sailhac and Jacques Pepin.
Heidi: I won a blender.
David: That was second prize. I won the chef’s pan for first place.
Heidi: Your goal was to get us both on the show so we could take home two prizes.
David: I still use the skills we picked up from the chefs. We still have and use the prizes and got texts from friends whenever the rerun came on.
Life after Lehigh
David: We both have had successful careers. I remained in the legal field, while Heidi went back to sales after law school.
Heidi: We are both still the people we were in college. The involvement, leadership, and activities — those are things we still did when we left Lehigh.
David: I sat on the town council in my town and served as mayor for almost a decade.
Heidi: I think it’s because we are organized, detail-oriented, and manage logistics well.
David: And smart and fun.
Life back at Lehigh
David: Our daughter went to Lehigh, while our son went to Purdue.
Heidi: On her college tours, she liked Lehigh. Like us, she was active on campus. Lehigh has such a nice vibe and a good size where a student can get involved and not feel like it is too big to do things or forced to compete for a slot.
David: We are football fanatics and come back for the Lehigh home games. Our daughter was in the Marching 97, and we perfected our tailgating skills during her four years at Lehigh. We fly Lehigh, Purdue, and Rutgers flags at our tailgate. I work at Rutgers, so we go to many games and fly all of our colors.
Heidi: It makes us easy to spot at all of the competitions.