The books are now housed in the college’s library in the Cohen Center for Kansas History, which the Cohens funded.

“Bart Cohen was not only a donor to the college,” said Darnell Holopirek, the college’s executive director of Institutional Advancement. “We’ve really lost a friend of the college, the foundation and the community.”

Holopirek said the Cohens traveled to Great Bend several times and often spoke about how important it is for the college and community to work together. “Bart truly was committed to helping us make Barton County a better community,” she added.

Cohen was a business lawyer with Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin and a longtime owner of Metcalf Bank. He was raised in Kansas City and traveled widely most of his life. He graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School. After his graduation from Harvard, he served in the U.S. Army in Germany, then joined his father in Cohen and Cohen Law Firm in Kansas City. Eventually, he moved his law practice to Johnson County.

When his father died in 1976, Cohen assumed his responsibilities at Metcalf Bank in Overland Park. Under his guidance as president of Metcalf Banchares Inc. and vice chairman and general counsel of Metcalf Bank, the bank not only survived as an independent community bank, but was able to grow in a very competitive banking environment. Although profitability was important to him, Cohen was known for taking care of his employees and giving back to the community.

He and his wife traveled extensively across Kansas to find and research many Jewish historical sites. In addition to establishing the Cohen Center for Kansas History at Barton, they endowed and dedicated a highway marker near Garden City, remembering the Jewish agricultural colony at Beersheba, and established the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Room for Regional Art at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College.

In addition to his wife, Cohen is survived by two children, Thomas Cohen of Overland Park and Margo Beames McKinney and her husband, Kevin, of Burlingame, Calif.; a stepson, John Davidson of Pasadena, Calif.; four grandchildren; a brother and sister-in-law, Miles and Nancy Cohen of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and a sister and brother-in-law, Hildred and Pat Flanigan of Leawood.

A brief memorial service will be held at noon on Thursday, Dec. 14, at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, in Overland Park.