Rusty Cohen Memorial Fund
Rusty Cohen was a great man. He was a business leader and a philanthropist, serving on the Center for Companies That Care Board of Directors from 2016-2020. He passed away on December 5, 2020. We mourn his loss. May his memory bless all those who follow in his legacy.
If you would like to make a donation to the Rusty Cohen Memorial Fund to support the AIM High program, please click here. Alternatively, you can mail a check to: Center for Companies That Care 641 W. Lake St. Suite 200 Chicago, IL 60661
To learn more, this video, produced by the Magid Glove marketing department, features Rusty and AIM High students. It is one of the many, many contributions Rusty made to ensure underserved students graduate from college. We will miss his leadership of our organization and his love and advocacy for the students.
Tribute to Rusty Cohen from Marci Koblenz on behalf of Center for Companies That Care
The world feels emptier without Rusty in it. He was a big man, with a big personality, a big heart, and a big presence in every room. His absence will be noticed and greatly missed.
Rusty cold-called our office one day, about five years ago. He wanted to know if we could implement our signature program, AIM High, at his company. Although that sounded more like a job for a consulting firm than a nonprofit, I was intrigued enough to meet with him. AIM High is a college prep and perseverance program to ensure underserved kids go to and graduate from college. I don’t even know how he found us. When I asked him why he wanted to do this, he said “I can’t think of a better legacy to leave my employees. If I can ensure their children graduate from college, I will leave them in a more stable situation than when they arrived as immigrants.” I knew then he was a man that cared, and a leader of a Company That Cares.
Rusty gave his employees paid time off to attend meetings to learn about the AIM High program and made sure there were materials in the languages they spoke. He provided college scholarships to the employees’ children and made sure they had the support they needed from us to get through college. He provided food and space so the students didn’t have to go all the way into the city to meet new friends or participate in AIM High programs. He also invited the AIM High city students to Magid each year to learn about the business and to play a little basketball!
After working with Rusty for a while and seeing that his commitment to kids was deep and sincere, we asked him to join our Board of Directors. He not only said “yes”; he doubled the size of the board with people he knew. In moments of transparency, several of them told me that as much as they supported the kids, they were also sitting on the Board
for Rusty. Rusty was a man you couldn’t say no to, but in truth, you didn’t want to say no because he always did so much for others that people were eager to do something he asked of them.
Rusty arrived early, with bagels and cream cheese, for every board meeting. No one asked him to do that. He was our champion, creating fundraising events, soliciting for sponsors, sending reminders, schlepping the ice, and showing up, with his entire family in tow. Always, always for the AIM High and Magid kids. This was the video about the program he had his marketing department create in 2019. It so perfectly captures our students’ voices and also highlights, in his own words, the love and compassion Rusty had for our students.
Rusty was the board member who, at every meeting, asked “how are the kids?” The last email I had from him, just three weeks ago, asked “how are the kids?”. I remember the board meeting when, once again, finances were tight and we were figuring out what to cut. He’s the one who said “we can’t cut the college bus trip, even if it is the largest program expense. The kids need that experience.” And when a funder’s grant was delayed and we weren’t going to able to pay the students’ stipends, Rusty volunteered to give us a no interest loan.
Rusty brought his business acumen to the Board too. He challenged me to focus less on the future and do what needed to be done now. He believed we’d figure out the future when we got there. And he was right. Because he was always there to make it right.
The world is emptier without Rusty in it. His presence raised the bar and motivated all of us who knew him through Center for Companies That Care and he changed the life trajectories of the hundreds of students he chose to care about. Rusty is a hero who truly made the world a better place.
