Judith Love Cohen

In 1991, Cohen's son Howard died of AIDS at the age of 36.

In 1990, after retiring from practice as an engineer, she began a publishing company called Cascade Pass with her third husband, David Katz. They published two series of books:

In 1982, she became a graduate of the UCLA Engineering Executive Program.

In the early 1980s, Cohen married David A. Katz. They had been married for 35 years at the time of Cohen's death, after a short battle with cancer in 2016.

In the mid-1960s, Cohen married Thomas "Tom" William Black, who converted to Judaism for her. In 1969, they had a son, Hollywood actor Jack Black. In a memorial tribute, her son Neil notes that she was troubleshooting problems with schematics on the day she went into labor, called her boss to let him know she had fixed the problem and then delivered Jack. The couple divorced in the late 1970s.

She received a scholarship to Brooklyn College to major in math, but realized she preferred engineering. After two years at Brooklyn College, Cohen married and moved to California, working as a junior engineer for North American Aviation, attending the University of Southern California (USC) at night; she said that she went through both her BS and MS programs at USC without ever meeting another female engineering student. She received both her bachelor's and master's degrees from USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in 1957 and 1962 respectively, and continued her association with the university, serving as an Astronautical Engineering Advisory board member.

Cohen's engineering career began in 1952, when she worked as a junior engineer at North American Aviation. After graduation from USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 1957, she went on to work at Space Technology Laboratories. Space Technology Laboratories eventually became TRW (acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002). She stayed with the company until her retirement in 1990. Her engineering work included work on the guidance computer for the Minuteman missile and the Abort-Guidance System (AGS) in the Apollo Lunar Module. The AGS played an important role in the safe return of Apollo 13 after an oxygen tank explosion left the Service Module crippled and forced the astronauts to use the Lunar Module as a "lifeboat." Supplies of electrical power and water on the LM were limited and the Primary Guidance and Navigation System used too much water for cooling. As a result, after a major LM descent engine burn two hours past its closest approach to the Moon to shorten the trip home, the AGS was used for most of the return, including two mid-course corrections. According to her son Neil, "My mother usually considered her work on the Apollo program to be the highlight of her career. When disaster struck the Apollo 13 mission, it was the Abort-Guidance System that brought the astronauts home safely. Judy was there when the Apollo 13 astronauts paid a 'thank you' to the TRW facility in Redondo Beach."

In the mid-1950s, Cohen married fellow engineer Bernard Siegel, whom she had met while she was a freshman in engineering school at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York. They had three children: engineer/scientist Neil Siegel, Howard Siegel, and Rachel Siegel. The couple divorced in the mid-1960s.

Judith Love Cohen (August 16, 1933 – July 25, 2016) was an American aerospace engineer. Cohen worked as an electrical engineer on the Minuteman missile, the science ground station for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, and the Apollo Space Program. After her retirement as an engineer, she founded a children's multimedia publishing company, eventually publishing more than 20 titles before her death in 2016. Cohen was the mother of computer scientist and engineer Neil Siegel and actor/musician Jack Black.