Sign Here, Mr. President

Even as a child, Gary M. Cohen devoured books on U.S. history, especially the ones focusing on presidents. About 25 years ago, he saw a document written by his favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, at an exhibit of historical papers. That gave him an idea: to start his own collection of presidential autographs.

“My first signature was a document signed by President Gerald Ford, when I met him at a library opening in Vail, Colorado,” recalls Cohen, who practices plaintiff’s medical malpractice law at Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen in Boca Raton. “Next, Jimmy Carter was doing a book-signing in a bookstore on the first floor of the office building I worked at. From there, it became my passion to collect every president’s signature from Washington forward. After 20 years my collection was complete, and I have kept up with all new presidents since. 

“This is a collection I will keep adding to,” he says. “Each document has a little story behind it, and I display all of them in my office so I can see them and be inspired by them every day.”