Donald Cotten, of Bayville, physics professor and environmentalist, dies at 94

When it comes to taking care of the environment, the planet can thank people like Donald Cotten.

"Dad was a perfectionist, a problem solver and a champion for the little guy and the planet," said Cotten's son Glenn Cotten, a regional sales manager in Mahopac. "He would want his legacy to be one of preservation and thinking of the greater good. How to preserve the environment for the future generation so the quality of life is continuous."

The Bayville resident died from heart failure on March 6 at the age of 94.

Donald Edwin Cotten was born on Sept. 27, 1930, in Brooklyn. He was raised by his mother, Attelia, and his two aunts, Nettie Chaffee and Harriett Chaffee. According to Cotten's son Forest Cotten, his aunts' influences on him and his childhood helped shape his future.

"I recall stories of my great-aunt Nettie taking my father on many car trips and adventures in upstate New York. It is there that he was able to see nature in all its natural splendor ... where the foundation for his love of the environment took root," said Forest Cotten, an analyst for Disability Rights New York of upstate Catskill.

Cotten attributed his love of the environment to his lifetime membership within the Boy Scout organization, for which he served as a scout leader. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School and then attended The Cooper Union. Cotten enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War and was stationed in Greenland during his service. He was discharged in 1952 as a tech sergeant and returned home to finish his education, earning a Ph.D. in Geophysics from NYU in 1957.

Cotten met his late wife Evelyn, who died in 2016, while spelunking in a Pennsylvania cave with the Metropolitan Outing Club Association, of which he was a longtime member. The couple married and moved to Bayville in 1966, where they raised three sons: Glenn, Cliff and Forest.

"My parents loved the water and the view, that's why they moved to Bayville," said Cliff Cotten, a retired military veteran, of Bayville. "Dad loved sailing and being on the water."

Cotten became a physics professor at the City University of New York in the early 1960s and later taught at Queensboro Community College. He retired from teaching in January 2003 after more than 40 years in a career he truly loved, according to his family.

"He loved to impart his wisdom and knowledge and to see kids blossom," Cliff said. "Many of his students throughout his educational career stayed in touch with him until his death."

Cotten also spent his time as a researcher at Nuclear Research Associates regarding projects associated with Los Alamos and later, at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in upstate Palisades, where he analyzed the seismic effects of solar eclipses.

"My father did a study to recommend a sea wall around Bayville and it got laughed out of the room, but really, it was the only thing that might have kept Bayville from going underwater," Forest said. "Every chance he had, he tried to make better what was there before, to improve and bring justice to those situations."

As a leader in the early environmental movement, Cotten is best known for organizing a grassroots opposition to the late 1960s Rye-Oyster Bay bridge project, a proposal by Robert Moses to build a bridge across Long Island Sound. The plan was defeated, which prompted Cotten to run in two failed bids for the New York State Senate. He was also elected chairman of the Washington D.C. committee for the first Earth Day Celebration.

Cotten's passion for nature extended to hiking, camping, traveling and always finding a way to protect the environment.

"His activism in environmental groups propelled his passion to protect it," Cliff Cotten said. "He would want to be remembered for his interest in preservation of the outdoors, his leadership, building and organizing and always thinking, 'What more can I do?' "

In addition to his three sons, Cotten is survived by seven grandchildren. A private cremation was held.