Columnist Writes a Winning Essay
Local resident Stan Cohen said he was flabbergasted recently when he won the top prize of $5,000 in a nationwide essay contest.
Cohen, 63, who writes a column for a local weekly newspaper and is a longtime community volunteer, retired in 1989 from the Internal Revenue Service as an assistant chief of the criminal investigation division for Southern California.
Cohen, a 27-year resident of Huntington Beach, entered his essay, “An Experience of an IRS Agent” in the National Legacies Contest, open to people 60 and older. The senior writers pen personal stories about the joys and challenges of their lives.
Cohen’s winning entry was about an incident in the early 1960s, when he was sent to recover a $25,000 refund made in error to a Santa Ana taxpayer. After a meeting with the elderly man, Cohen wrote, he returned to his office and wrote on his report: “Unable to locate.”
Cohen, a former city planning commissioner and member of the Police Department’s Retired Senior Volunteer Program, said he and his wife, Patricia, will use the essay contest prize money to travel.
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