Cohen was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Sarah and Morris Bernard Cohen. By fifth grade, Cohen's classmates were paying her to do their math homework. Cohen was often the only female in her math classes, and decided she wanted to be a math teacher. By age 19, she was both studying engineering in college, and dancing ballet in the Metropolitan Opera Ballet company in New York.
Education
Judith received a scholarship to Brooklyn College to major in math, but realized she preferred engineering. After two years at Brooklyn College, Cohen married and moved to California, working as a junior engineer for North American Aviation, attending USC at night; she said that she went through both her BS and MS programs at USC without ever meeting another female engineering student. She received both her Bachelor's and master's degrees from USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and continued her association with the university, serving as an Astronautical EngineeringAdvisory board member. In 1982, Cohen became a graduate of the UCLA Engineering Executive Program as well.
Professional life
Cohen's engineering career began in 1952, when she worked as a junior engineer at North American Aviation. After graduation from USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 1957, she went on to work at Space Technology Laboratories. Space Technology Laboratories eventually became TRW. Cohen stayed with the company until her retirement in 1990. In 1990, after retiring from practice as an engineer, Cohen began a publishing company called Cascade Pass with her 3rd husband, David Katz. They published two series of books: the "You Can be a Woman … " series was created to encourage very young girls to pursue careers in science and engineering; the "Green" series focuses on promoting positive environmental practices, aimed at young children. Cascade Pass has sold more than 100,000 of their children's books in these two series. Cascade Pass also published a book called The Women of Apollo, which features short biographies of four women who helped put the first man on the moon, Judith among them. In May 2014, Cohen received the IEEE-USA Distinguished Literary Contributions Award for her work with STEM for children.
Personal life
Cohen was the mother of four children, including well-known engineer/scientist Neil Siegel and actor Jack Black. She had her first three with Bernard Siegel, who she met in college and married a few months later. Cohen and Siegel divorced in the 1960s, and Cohen later married Thomas William Black. Her fourth child, Jack, was born in 1969. Cohen and Black divorced in the late 1970s. Her third husband was David Katz. They were still married when Cohen died of cancer in 2016.
