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Charles Richard Coen

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Longtime Coen Oil president, philanthropist

Reflections of her father’s many kindnesses came easily to Holly Ann Coen. Two involved celebrity encounters he arranged for his youngest daughter.

She was 6 and already an avid baseball fan who revered Cincinnati catcher Johnny Bench. One evening, following dinner in the Allegheny Club at Three Rivers Stadium, Dick Coen walked down to the visiting dugout.

“He motioned to Johnny Bench that I wanted to meet him,” Holly said. “Johnny said, ‘Hi, Holly, come on down.’ But I wouldn’t go down.”

A decade later, while staying at the Homestead Resort in Charlottesville, Va., father and daughter spotted a young, highly visible model at dinner with whom Holly was enamored – Andie MacDowell.

“He went to breakfast early the next morning, saw her and said, ‘My daughter wants to meet you.’ I went down and she spoke with me and gave me her autograph.

“That was so thoughtful of him.”

Charles Richard “Dick” Coen, 83, longtime president of Coen Oil Co., died Saturday, August 10, 2013, in Washington County Health Center, Chartiers Township, following a six-month illness. He also was an owner/investor of Washington Mall and was a philanthropist through C.S. and Mary Coen Foundation.

“He donated a lot to Washington Hospital and the Presbyterian Home,” Holly said.

Coen was born Feb. 7, 1930, in Washington, to Charles S. and Mary E. Kirkpatrick Coen. He graduated from East Washington High School in 1947 and Washington & Jefferson College in 1952.

Stephen Richman was two years behind Coen in school and grew up two blocks away on East Beau Street but said he didn’t know the man well until they became investors and owners of Washington Mall, which opened in the late 1960s.

“He was astute and intelligent, and a decent person who tried hard to be fair in all of his dealings with people,” said Richman, a longtime attorney in Washington who is now retired and living in South Strabane Township. “He always sought to be friendly with people.

“He also was very humble, and, if you ever needed a favor, he was zealous about helping you.”

John Northrop, former co-publisher of the Observer-Reporter, said he knew him to be a generous man as Coen donated “a lot of money from the Coen Foundation. He was very private and a very nice guy.”

“My dad treated everyone nicely,” Holly said. “My dad was not a snob. He was very low-key. He treated all of his employees well and with respect.”

She said after one of her sisters, Betsy Coen Trapuzzano, died in the mid-1990s, her father took Betsy’s three sons out to dinner “every Friday for years.”

“He always came to his grandsons’ sporting events,” Patrick Trapuzzano, one of Coen’s grandsons, said.

Coen also was a voracious reader who loved history, especially the Civil War. Traveling and Pirates baseball were longtime passions as well, and he was a Ham Radio operator-K3DXV.

“He loved to make day trips, and he had Pirates season tickets for many years,” Holly Ann said.

Coen was a military veteran, an Army lieutenant from 1952 to 1954. Upon returning home, he joined Ross Independent Oil Co., and later Coen Oil Co., which his father started in 1923.

Coen became president of Coen Oil in 1983 and held that position until his retirement in 2000.

He also served as president of C.S. Coen Land Co. and Ross Independent Oil Co. of Washington, and with the board of directors of Pleasants County Bank, St. Marys, W.Va., and Washington Hospital Foundation.

Coen was a member of Church of the Covenant, the Allegheny Club, Sons of the American Revolution and American Legion Edwin Scott Linton Post 175.

In addition to Holly Ann Coen of Meridian, Idaho, surviving are daughter Judith L. Grove (Steve) of Harrisburg; two sisters, Marilyn R. McIlvaine and Helen L. Brooks, both of Washington; five grandchildren, Christopher, Andrew and Patrick Trapuzzano, and Sarah and Laura Grove; and two great-grandchildren, Brady and Isabella Trapuzzano.

Coen was preceded in death by a daughter, Betsy, and his former wife, Nancy Leslie Coen.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in William G. Neal Funeral Homes Ltd., 925 Allison Avenue, Washington. Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, August 14, in Church of the Covenant, 267 East Beau Street, Washington, with the Rev. Stuart Broberg. Entombment will follow in Washington Cemetery. Military rites will be accorded at graveside by American Legion Edwin Scott Linton Post 175.

Memorial contributions may be made to American Cancer Society, 331 South Main Street, Washington, PA 15301, or to Colonial Williamsburg Fund, P.O. Box 1776, Williamsburg, VA 23187-9910.

For additional information and a guest book, visit www.NealFuneralHome.com.

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