Mona Hersh-Cochran, first woman to earn Ph.D from SMU, dies (2024)

Mona Hersh-Cochran, who inspired thousands of students after becoming the first woman to earn a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University, died Sept. 6. She was 89.

Hersh-Cochran spent more than three decades teaching at Texas Woman’s University, where she mentored students and published research whose topics included factors driving the gender pay gap.

“We like to say that she was a women’s libber before women’s lib was cool,” said her son, Ken Hersh, president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. “She was always an advocate for women, and she was always a resource for her students.”

Hersh-Cochran was recognized as a health economics specialist. She served as an adviser to the World Health Organization as well as a consultant to what was the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Her work earned numerous awards, including SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award. But those who knew her said her most precious honor came when former students banded together to form the Mentored by Mona club.

“Her students were her legacy, and they stayed in her life forever,” daughter Paula Hersh said.

Patty Hejney was part of that club. She graduated from Texas Woman’s University in 1976 and credits Hersh-Cochran for helping her secure scholarship money, a summer internship in Washington, D.C., and eventually a job with the Treasury Department.

“She told me once that even more than teaching us the course of economics, she wanted to teach us to think,” Hejney recalled.

Hersh-Cochran followed the careers of “her girls” with pride, Hejney said, keeping in touch with many of them through their own retirements.

Hersh-Cochran distilled her message during a 2001 speech when she accepted an award from Girls Inc.

“Don’t get sidetracked by babies; don’t get sidetracked by drugs; and don’t get sidetracked by people like Britney Spears,” Hersh-Cochran said at the time. “Think of yourself as having a career, not a job. A husband and marriage may come and go. Stay on track; set your goals; and you will achieve them.”

College life could be hostile to women – especially those balancing roles as a wife and mother, she recalled in her speech. Each day, she rushed off campus at 4 p.m. to relieve the babysitter by 4:30.

She impressed upon her own children that education was non-negotiable and mentorship was vital.

Paula Hersh said her mother was proud to have spent her career at a school focused on educating women.

“TWU was known for being a nursing school, so she’d recruit the nursing students to take economics and tell them it was important for their lives,” Paula Hersh recalled.

Hersh-Cochran’s presence at the front of the classroom was inspiring on its own, former students said. But she also doled out practical advice to help her girls succeed.

Jane Koch Carothers, who graduated in 1969, said her professor once advised her before a job interview at Texas Instruments: If you’re asked about typing, just say that you don’t know how.

Otherwise, Hersh-Cochran warned, you might get relegated to the steno pool.

Koch Carothers got the job she wanted — as a market analyst.

“Mona Hersh-Cochran was a pioneer in more ways than one,” TWU Chancellor Carine Feyten said in a statement. “Her former students remember her as someone who could make economics entertaining and easier to understand. Sometimes, she would bring a shopping cart full of groceries into class to talk about inflation.”

Hersh-Cochran was born in Philadelphia in 1934 and raised in Atlantic City, N.J., by her mother and grandmother. She spent her childhood roller skating through the streets and walking the boardwalk, according to a 2013 interview with the Dallas Jewish Historical Society.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1956 before moving to Dallas and earning her doctorate from SMU a decade later.

Her three children were in the audience during her historic graduation ceremony.

“I got hooded, and the kids were yelling, ‘There’s my mommy! There’s my mommy!’” Hersh-Cochran said during the 2013 interview.

SMU President R. Gerald Turner called her career remarkable.

“Her tireless dedication to helping others, her intelligence and her unwavering support will be deeply missed,” he said in a statement.

After retiring, Hersh-Cochran traveled in an RV and took cruises, visiting friends and attending symphonies along the way.

“She filled up her bucket list. She really did,” Paula Hersh said.

Hersh-Cochran relied on several caregivers over the last few years. One of them worked for her while pursuing a college degree. Hersh-Cochran encouraged the caregiver to use her education to become a teacher.

The woman now works in a Dallas school, Paula Hersh said.

“In true form, she was a teacher and a mentor to the final days,” she said of her mother.

Hersh-Cochran was preceded in death by husband, Kendall P. Cochran and, later, longtime companion Gustave L. Hoehn. In addition to her children Paula and Ken, she is survived by daughter Susan Geller and many grandchildren.