NEW YORK — The first time Gov. Josh Shapiro attended the glitzy Pennsylvania Society dinner in midtown Manhattan, he was a young lawmaker invited by David L. Cohen.
Fifteen years later, Shapiro again sat front and center with Cohen, on Saturday night in New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel. The governor and the former U.S. ambassador to Canada celebrated Cohen’s receipt of a gold medal award, which has typically been given to the likes of former presidents, prominent philanthropists, and influential businesspeople.
“I still remember that feeling of sitting here, in this storied hotel, inspired not just by this grand, historic room, but most especially by the people in it. I just felt honored to be here,” Shapiro recalled in his remarks Saturday night to the 127th annual Pennsylvania Society dinner. “We’ve come full circle.”
The Pennsylvania Society, which began in the Waldorf Astoria in 1899 by wealthy Pennsylvania natives who were living in New York and hoping to effect change in their home state, returned Saturday to the iconic hotel for the first time in eight years to honor Cohen for his lifetime of achievement and contributions to Pennsylvania.
The $1,000-per-plate dinner closed out the Pennsylvania Society weekend in New York City, where the state’s political elite — local lawmakers, federal officials, university presidents, and top executives — travel to party, fundraise, and schmooze across Midtown Manhattan, with the goal of making Pennsylvania better.
Each of the approximately 800 attendees at Saturday night’s dinner was served filet mignon as their entree and a cherry French pastry for dessert. The candlelit tables in the grand ballroom had an elaborate calla lily centerpiece — a flower often symbolizing resurrection or rebirth, as the society had its homecoming after years away while the hotel was closed for renovations.
Shapiro, who has delivered remarks to the Pennsylvania Society dinner each year of his first term as governor, focused on the polarization of the moment. He said the antidote that Pennsylvanians want is for top officials to work together and show the good that government can achieve to make people’s lives better.
“Let us be inspired by that spirit and take the bonds we form tonight back home to our cities, towns, and farmlands, and continue to find ways to come together, make progress, and create hope,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro also thanked the members of the society for their support after an attempt on his life by a man who later pleaded guilty to setting fires in the governor’s residence on Passover while he and his family slept inside.
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Cohen was honored as a Philadelphia stalwart whose long career includes stints as an executive at Comcast, chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s board of trustees, and five years as Ed Rendell’s chief of staff during his mayorship.
He was recognized in a prerecorded video featuring praise from former U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and former University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann, Rendell, and others the 70-year-old Cohen has worked with throughout his career.
Rendell attended the dinner with his ex-wife and federal appellate court Judge Marjorie “Midge” Rendell. In his prerecorded remarks, Ed Rendell credited Cohen as the true governor and mayor of Philadelphia for all of his work behind the scenes.
Cohen, who continues his work to promote the relationship between the United States and Canada since his return to Philadelphia this year, began his remarks following his introduction with a joke: “It’s sort of nice to hear a preview of your obituary,” he said with a laugh.
Cohen gave an impassioned speech defending democracy and recognizing America’s position in the world, even as polarization reaches a fever pitch in the country. He credited the society as a place where America’s founding tenets are achieved.
“These Pennsylvania Society principles represent what the United States is supposed to stand for as a country, a promoter and defender of democratic values, values that have special residence in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, where our country was born almost 250 years ago,” Cohen said.
And Cohen had a dispatch from his years as an ambassador, followed by a call to action: “From our comfortable perch in Pennsylvania, I don’t think we always appreciate what we have here in the United States and the critical role that America plays on the global stage in promoting democracy.”
