“Searching for Steve”: RIC Alum Brought to Life in His Father’s Book

Stephen Cohen ’95 was a promising teacher, a dreamer, an avid science fiction reader and a dog lover, whose life was brief but meaningful. Twenty-five years after his death, his adoptive father, Joel Harris, is finally sharing his story in a book titled “Searching for Steve,” (Loyola College/Apprentice House, 2023). 

In October 1999, at age 31, Cohen drowned in the Pacific Ocean while trying to save a friend’s dog. This was just a few weeks after he had begun his second year teaching AP (Advanced Placement) “United States and European History” at the American Nicaraguan School in Nicaragua. 

Cohen had a keen interest in history. He earned his master’s degree at RIC in 1995. “He loved RIC,” Harris says. “He found his place there.”

As a teacher, Cohen was innovative. During his first year in Nicaragua, he worked hard to create his own teaching format and style. “He was doing so well and received such a positive response that they gave him a guidance class to teach as well,” Harris says. “He connected deeply with his students, which is evident in the condolence letters they wrote after his death.” (These letters are included at the end of Harris’ book.)

A year after Cohen’s death, Harris decided to turn on his son’s old Mac computer and discovered his teaching journals, essays, lesson plans and some fragments of a science fiction novel. At age 87, he turned all of that material into a deeply personal book. 

“Searching for Steve” recounts the journey of a passionate teacher, a sensitive soul and a young man still finding his place in the world. It includes excerpts from Cohen’s novel, diaries and teaching journals, and it is told from both his own point of view and that of his father’s.   

“I wanted to bring Steve to life for other people, not just for me, because he had something to share with the world,” Harris says. 

Cohen’s teaching journals emphasize the importance of teachers in their students’ lives. He explores the teacher-student relationship, discusses different teaching strategies he learned from his mentors and describes how he worked on building a profound relationship with his students.

“I’m serious when I say I think I’ve found my calling in teaching,” Cohen writes. “Five or ten years down the line, I see myself teaching at some high school in some suburb (hopefully on the West Coast), living in an apartment with my dog(s) and writing, either about my world or other forms of SF/fantasy.”

“Stephen wrote about half of this book,” Harris says. “I was surprised by how wisely he perceived things. I miss growing up with him and seeing him mature.”

Harris is confident that his book could be of interest to student-teachers, “because it’s about the experience that all of those who want to become teachers have,” he says.  

Harris says his son was an idealist and someone who truly believed in the power of education. “He made a mark in a foreign country, and I think this is the way he wants to be remembered,” he says. “He did a particular job and succeeded in it.”

“Searching for Steve” is more than a tribute. It’s a reminder that teaching, when done with heart, leaves a lasting mark, even when the teacher is gone too soon.