That’s how Arthur Benjamin Cohn signed everything.

I’ve mentioned him several times before, always in passing and always in connection with some odd thing that turned up in his papers, but he deserves more respectful treatment. As Rice’s first (and William Marsh Rice’s last) business manager and assistant secretary to the board, Mr. Cohn was one of the mainstays of the early Institute. Happily, the other day I ran across a draft of the memorial resolution passed by the board (almost certainly written by Dr. Lovett) after his death in 1938:

I’ve always regretted that we have no photograph of Mr. Cohn. But yesterday as I sorted through some early construction photos I suddenly realized that we do. Present at the very beginning, Cohn is on the far left in this image of the laying of the Administration Building’s cornerstone. I think he cuts quite a dashing figure:

Bonus: