Peter Weston Coogan

Peter Weston Coogan, of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, and formerly of Pomfret, Vermont and Tucson, Arizona, died of COVID-19 at the age of 76 on Thursday, April 9, 2020.  A lawyer at Foley Hoag LLP, in Boston, for over 37 years, he was a distinguished business attorney known for his sophisticated business, banking and intellectual property practice.

A graduate of The Roxbury Latin School, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, Peter Coogan attended Harvard College (graduating in 1966 with an A.B. cum laude) and Harvard Law School (graduating in 1969 with a J.D. magna cum laude).  From 1969-1970, Peter was a Law Clerk for the Honorable J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  From 1970-1973, he was Assistant Chief Counsel for the United States Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments and a Legislative Assistant to Senator Birch Bayh (D-Indiana).  While with the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, Peter was instrumental in the introduction (in March, 1971) and ratification (in July, 1971) of the 26th Constitutional Amendment which permits voting by citizens who are 18 years and older.  Peter also worked on passage of the Equal Rights Amendment which sought to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex.  That Constitutional amendment was submitted to states in March, 1972 for ratification but did not receive the requisite state approvals by the ratification deadline of March, 1979. 

In 1973, Peter joined the Boston law firm of Foley Hoag LLP (known then as Foley Hoag & Eliot LLP).  Testament to his legal acumen, Peter became a full equity partner of the firm in less than two years.  He practiced in the Business Practice Area of the firm, and he was Chairman of the Business Department from 1982-1987 and again from 1997-2000.  Peter was elected by the firm partners to the firm’s Executive and Distribution Committees and served from 1987-1995.  From 1989-1994, Peter was a Managing Partner of the firm.

Peter specialized in the legal areas of banking, corporate finance and securities, intellectual property, technology transfer and licensing, life sciences, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital and emerging companies.  Over the course of his 37 year practice at Foley Hoag, Peter represented such corporate clients as C.R. Bard, Inc., a leading biotechnology and health-care company; and the Depositors Insurance Fund (DIF) which provides supplemental protection for funds deposited with Massachusetts-chartered savings banks.  Peter’s legal advice was always smart, insightful and practical, and he was a well-liked mentor to young lawyers.  As his former partner Carol Pratt said on hearing of Peter’s death:  “What he taught me, about law and service and life and how to treat people, cannot be measured.”

When Peter joined Foley Hoag in 1973, his future wife Debbie was then an associate at the firm.  They were married in May, 1975 in Hanover, New Hampshire, after two years of what Peter’s mother, Barbara Coogan, described as “the time when Debbie was courting Peter!”, and the two were happily married for 45 years.  When their engagement was announced, the firm’s then managing partners permitted the two to remain at the law firm, with Peter practicing in the business area and Debbie specializing in wills, trusts, tax, family law and immigration.  They had daughter Tracy in April, 1979 and son Christopher in April, 1982.  Tracy is presently Deputy General Counsel and Senior Vice President at Eastern Bank, headquartered in Lynn, Massachusetts, and Christopher is a Tier 2 Technical Escalation Specialist at Poppulo, based in Cork, Ireland and Waltham, Massachusetts.

Peter and Debbie had their primary residence in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, and they also had a vacation home in Pomfret, Vermont, and later a winter home in Tucson, Arizona.  They spent virtually every weekend and vacation for more than 40 years at their Vermont farm, and Peter especially enjoyed mowing the fields and maintaining the 200-acre family farm.  Peter was known for his collection of more than 10 tractors and off-road vehicles.  When Peter retired from Foley Hoag in 2010, Peter and Debbie purchased a winter home in Tucson, Arizona, where they enjoyed classical music concerts at the Fred Fox School of Music at the University of Arizona.  Peter and Debbie were members of the School’s Music Advisory Board, and their contributions to the School included financing the purchase of new Steinway grand pianos for the School’s two concert halls.  Peter was also a major supporter of the classical music station of Vermont Public Radio, in Colchester, Vermont.  

Born in Boston, Massachusetts on February 21, 1944, Peter W. Coogan is survived by:

His wife, Deborah Willard Coogan, of Newton Centre;
His daughter, Tracy Coogan Plants, and her husband, Todd E. Plants, of Brookline;
His beloved four-year old grandson, Finn Michael Coogan Plants;
His grandson, Sawyer Weston Coogan Plants, born April 5th just in time for Peter to know that he had a second grandchild;
His son, Christopher Willard Coogan, and his fiancee, Margaret Sloan, of Charlestown;
His sister, Rosalind Coogan Anderson, and her husband, Julius Anderson, of Pomfret, Vermont;
His brother, Matthew Coogan, and his wife, Patricia Ferris Coogan, of Ithaca, New York and Pomfret, Vermont;
His brother-in-law, David O. Merrill, and his sister-in-law, Charlotte Wheaton Merrill, of Murphy, Texas and Pomfret, Vermont;
His sister-in-law, Judith Willard Meyer, and her husband, Richard T. Meyer, of Boynton Beach, Florida; and
Numerous nieces and nephews.

The family asks that contributions in Peter’s memory be made to any of the following: 

Harvard College, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138;
Harvard Law School, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138;
The University of Arizona Foundation for the benefit of the Fred Fox School of Music, 1111 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0109; or
Another charity of your choice.

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