Living up to her name: Grace Cochran was a pillar of the church

By Jacob R. Wheeler
Sun editor
As the sparkplug behind community events, the eternal optimist and the spiritual aid at any time of day or night, Grace Cochran left an indelible mark on the local community as well as on Christian Scientists all over the country. Grace passed away on December 29 in her home in Glen Arbor though she lived up to her name until the very end. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, July 3 at 10 a.m. at the Yacht Club.

“You can’t mention Grace without talking about her faith, her love of God and will to share it with others,” says close friend Peg McCarty. “That was the special gift she gave to this community. She wanted to help others on their own journey seeking to reach God.” Grace was involved in nearly every facet of the flourishing local Christian Science community — teaching Sunday school or serving in the Reading Room and helping people with their research that is such an integral part of the faith. She gained enough experience as a spiritual healer that the Mother Church in Boston accepted her as a licensed Christian Science practitioner, making her available to clients 24 hours a day.
Her faith and her love for the nature that is such a force in northern Michigan bring to mind a quote from Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science faith: “All nature teaches God’s love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.”
Grace’s friends in the local Christian Science community, as well as her children, Philip, George, Corinne and Annabel Moore, and grandchildren attest that her faith was what illuminated her for 75 happy years. “Her relationship with God kept her alive,” says daughter Corinne. “Her courage and conviction were the inspiration she gave to the community as well as to her children, and that spirit will never leave us. She humbled us with her faith.”
The love affair with northern Michigan began early in Grace’s life. A native of downtown Chicago, she began attending Camp Kohana as a 5-year-old and high-schooled at the Pinebrook School for girls from 1942-46. (Camps Leelanau and Kohana were once affiliated with The Leelanau School, while Pinebrook is now the girls’ dormitory at the private boarding school in Glen Arbor.) Corinne says her mothers’ trunks would literally travel back and forth between Kohana and Pinebrook. Grace got her degree from Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts and met her future husband, Phil Cochran, on a blind date. Their happy marriage began in 1951 and lasted almost half a century, until Phil passed on in February, 2001.
Almost from the moment they retired to Glen Arbor in 1981 the Cochrans became community leaders. While Phil served as chairman of the board at The Leelanau School during its most successful period in the early 90’s, Grace immediately became a stalwart of the Christian Science church. She also served as president and board member for the Traverse Symphony Orchestra and the Glen Lake Community Library, a board member for WIAA-Interlochen Public Radio and the Glen Lake Garden Club. She carried her love for art up to the north woods after serving as a docent at the Art Institute of Chicago.
And there were certain community events that Grace would never think of missing, as friend Jan Heston can attest. Fourth of July weekend was naturally the busiest time of the year for Bill and Jan Heston when they owned Steffen’s IGA (now Anderson’s Market), yet on one Fourth during the Glen Arbor parade Grace stopped by and challenged the Hestons to take the time to go over to Old Settler’s Park on the east end of Big Glen Lake and take part in the annual flag raising ceremony. “Always 100 percent behind decisions and organizations, she encouraged you and made difficult things seem possible,” says Jan. “’Of course you can make it,’ were Grace’s words. So we haven’t missed one since.”
Grace remained empowered and inspired up until her passing, remembers Sue Woodward, her hospice helper. Intent on hearing one last great performance, Grace dressed up and attended the Traverse Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas concert with Sue’s help just over a week before she died. “She asked me, ‘what do you think I’ll look like when I pass on? Do you think my hair will be blond?’” Woodward remembers. “I told her it will sparkle like the sun hitting Lake Michigan.”