IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2012 - 18

and laughs. "We told that story for many,
many years after."
In their house they had nannies,
sometimes live-in nannies, and parents
who came home from work long after the
children were home from school, but it
worked: "To the first approximation, we
could do what we wanted," Siegel says,

had a real passion for it. "Again," he says,
"Mom said if you want music lessons you
can do that, but you're going to have to
get on your own bicycle and go there and
back, and I did that, and a few years later I
wanted to learn to play guitar, and so, same
thing-I'd get on my bicycle and ride myself to music lessons."
Siegel became what he calls
"kind of a child prodigy as a musician" and by the time he was 12 or
13 he was performing. Down the
road, he put himself through USC
as a musician, playing Bar Mitzvahs, giving lessons, and recordFamily Life
ing. He is still a member of the
When Siegel was four, the family
Musician's Union-probably the
was living in Bellflower, Califoronly aerospace executive in the
nia, near Long Beach, and both
country who belongs to a union.
his parents were working at Space
When Siegel was ten, Cohen,
Technology Laboratories. Siegel
who had been doing Balkan folk
wanted to learn to swim, and so
dancing for years, began taking
he says, his parents, "took me
him with her. "She started taking
on the city bus, showed me the
me," Siegel says, "and dancing beroute-once-and then would
came another big passion in my
leave each morning giving me
life." He joined a major performtwo quarters, one for the fare
ing group when he was 15.
there, one for the fare back, and
Around this time, Siegel bewould send this four and a half
friended a musician from Turkey
year old off on the bus for swimwho introduced him to the ney,
ming lessons."
a traditional Turkish flute-like
This memory makes Siegel
Cohen with the Atlas-Able Satellite that was developed
instrument made of cane. A few
chuckle. "I always laugh when to soft-land on the moon.
years later, he met an Iranian muI hear my colleagues talk about
sician and began playing an Iranian long"but, you know, we had a good relationdriving their kids," he says, "because if I
neck lute called the târ.
ship with our parents and we could always
wanted to do flag football or Little League,
He was dancing at the Renaissance
talk to them."
I had to get on my bike and go. But it was
Faire near Los Angeles in 1974 when a
empowering, and somehow we didn't get
woman came backstage to be introduced.
into too much trouble."
Musical Youth
Her name was Robyn Friend, and she was a
Cohen was doing something that not
In their household, which Siegel affecdancer whose family hailed from Bulgaria.
many women did in the 1950s and 1960s-
tionately calls "unstructured in the exThis began a partnership of dance and mujuggling work, school, and children, retreme," it is music that seems to connect
sic that continues to this day (they were
turning home on her lunch break to nurse
everyone. Sort of. Cohen "tinkered" with
married in 1979). Although Siegel says
babies. By the time her fourth child, Jack,
the piano, and they had one in the house,
they are now performing less, for over 30
was born (when Siegel was 15), Cohen was
but none of the children took to that paryears Siegel and Robyn performed around
a major multitasker. "There was a problem
ticular instrument. They all found their
50 concerts a year all over the world, dancwe were trying to solve," she remembers.
own sound-folk, pop, and classical-
ing and playing at major theaters all over
"I called my boss-I was looking at the
and, when the kids were home, from
the United States, Europe (including at the
readout-and he said, 'Where are you callbehind bedroom doors drifted different
Edinburgh Festival), and in many places in
ing from?' and I said, 'Oh, I'm at the hostypes of music.
Asia (including the prestigious Sharq Taropital, I just gave birth to a baby boy. Now
When he was six or seven, Siegel startnalari festival in Uzbekistan).
about these readouts...." Cohen pauses
ed learning the flute and discovered he
Telescope Science Operations Ground
System, and this became one of her favorite projects. Here, Cohen says, "while
system engineering was considered
men's work before this, I wound up having a group of talented women managers as well as workers, and we did a
wonderful job that I am very proud of."
By the end of the project, Cohen
was deputy project manager. The
Hubble, still in use today, "lasted
longer and did more science than
anyone would have predicted."

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

JUNE 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2012