Marty Kohn

Happily back in Cleveland (Shaker Heights) for 21 years after 6 years in Columbus and 23 years in Akron. I've been involved in education (teaching, administering, curriculum design) for the past 45 years, the last 36 of which in the medical humanities. That work began in 1981 at NEOMED for 20 years, followed by 8 years at the Center for Literature and Medicine (that I co-founded) at Hiram College, and currently at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of CWRU. I've been very fortunate in my work-- and equally so in my marriage to (a non-CHHS) Marcia Silver (of Baltimore), also on the CWRU SOM faculty as a nephrologist at MetroHealth. My first wife (also a Marcia) and I have remained close in our raising of our daughters (and grandkids), sharing holidays, and more, creating a large "village" (our grandkids at one time had 10 great grandparents-- many nearby!). The boys (from my second marriage) are very close with their sisters, nieces and nephews and the rest of the village. I don't have a webpage, but if you google using my (formal) name "Martin Kohn" and "poem" you can read a few of them. One of my more recent joys has come about through my growing embrace of my Jewishness over the past 3-4 decades, and its expression more recently through my "unofficial" status as poet-in-residence at Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, Cleveland's amazing (small) Conservative synagogue.

I can still see Mr. Lasky jumping up on his desk and doing something outrageous yet compelling. He likely helped propel me into teaching. I also recounted to my younger son recently (after he asked me "what I did in high school" -- and I came up with a blank), that I recalled renting motorcycles (on more than one occasion--perhaps with Joel Polster, Paul Greenberger, Gary Levine) and "tooling" around town, but not making much noise, since they were only 50cc engines.....