[FOM] Paul Cohen has died.

[martin@eipye.com]

Dear friends,

I am very sorry to pass on this tragic news. Details below 
are from his family.

Martin
-------------------------------------------------------
  We are very sorry to tell you that Paul Cohen has 
suddenly passed away.

He has had a rare lung disease for maybe two years now, 
but symptoms
only began to really manifest about a year ago. We did not 
know that
the disease had progressed nearly as much as it clearly 
had.

On Monday Paul had a bad attack and was taken to the 
emergency room,
and we were told then that the situation was very grave. 
But after
receiving medication he stabilized and seemed fine and was 
actually
going to be released this Friday morning. But Thursday 
morning his
lungs failed and he became unconscious and did not awaken. 
So this
whole thing has been a total shock to us (twice).

Overall he had not been in pain at all and was only on 
relatively low
levels of oxygen. Just this Sunday he and my mother went 
out to
dinner and the movie theater. And on Wednesday night when 
we last saw
him conscious he was happy and completely alert.

There will most likely be a small service for friends and 
family and
then a larger one afterwards hosted by the Stanford math 
department.
As of now we have not made definite plans.