LittleSis: Rick Cohen

The 61-year-old -- who goes by “Rick” -- has transformed C&S into the world’s largest grocery wholesaler since taking the helm of the business in 1989, making him one of the 100 richest people in the world and the wealthiest man in New England. Cohen’s grandfather, Israel, co-founded C&S in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1918, according to the company’s website. After a flood destroyed his inventory in 1929, he opened a new warehouse twice the size on higher ground, a few blocks further from the city’s Blackstone River. His son, Lester, expanded the business into supplying military bases after a tour of duty as a bomber navigator in World War II. Rick joined the company in 1974, after receiving an accounting degree at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school. A three-week union strike almost shuttered the business a year later, leading Cohen to persuade his father to move the company to Brattleboro, Vermont, where it could build larger warehouses and hire nonunion workers. Cohen took over as CEO and chairman when his father retired. He moved the headquarters 18 miles east to Keene in 2003. The billionaire and his wife, Jan, live on a street where the average home value is $294,000. The couple owns the most valuable single-family home in Keene, assessed at $1.5 million. Cohen’s wife is executive producer of the Kaddish Project, a touring musical on genocide, and the Holocaust studies center at Keene State College was renamed after the family for their financial support, according to the school. One daughter, Perry, is C&S’s vice president of corporate learning and talent management; another, Rachel, teaches high school at a charter school in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Donor	Common Recipients
Leonard Litwin	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee
Stephen Schwarzman	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld
Douglas D Durst	Thomas Peter Lantos, James Merrill Jeffords, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Katrina Swett, Mitt Romney
Dave Williams	James Merrill Jeffords, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee
Lawrence Herbert	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, James Merrill Jeffords, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Mitt Romney, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee
Anita Bekenstein	Paul Hodes, George W Bush, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld, Jeanne Shaheen, Friends of Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, Maggie for New Hampshire
Fred S Zeidman	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld
Jack N. Halpern	Thomas Peter Lantos, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Katrina Swett, Mitt Romney, Jeanne Shaheen
Charles B Johnson	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld
Charles R. Black	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld
L Scott Frantz	John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee
Patrick Durkin	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld
Ken Kendrick	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee
Elsie Hilliard Hillman	Todd Platts, James Merrill Jeffords, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Bill Weld, Jeanne Shaheen
Stewart W Bainum Jr	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Jeanne Shaheen
James S McDonnell III	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee
Donald Diamond	Richard Burr, Thomas Peter Lantos, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee
Edyth Bailey Lindner	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee
J Steven Hart	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, Charles Foster Bass, James Merrill Jeffords, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Mitt Romney
Robert A Mosbacher	Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld

Donor

Common Recipients

Leonard Litwin

Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee

Stephen Schwarzman

Richard Burr, John E Sununu, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld

Douglas D Durst

Thomas Peter Lantos, James Merrill Jeffords, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Katrina Swett, Mitt Romney

Dave Williams

James Merrill Jeffords, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, Mitt Romney, Bill Weld, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee

Lawrence Herbert

Richard Burr, John E Sununu, James Merrill Jeffords, George W Bush, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Mitt Romney, Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee