Melvin Cohen

Mel Cohen got his start designing point-of purchase displays fresh out of University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1950. He started Melrose Displays in 1952 and opened a factory in Clifton, NJ. Handi-hut's shelters came years later, the outgrowth of sidewalk structures Cohen created for disabled entrepreneurs.
After seeing disabled workers manning newsstands he had created for The New York Times, Cohen started making more versatile product stands they could own and operate. He sold the business a few years later, but retained the name "Handi-Hut".
The door meets Florida building code requirements and could become a model for new construction in other parts of the country. "Almost every coastal region is going to be adopting some form of hurricane code" says Cohen. "And Florida code is one of the strictest in the country".
Besides his love for business, he's also an avid snow skier, and marathon runner. And his business associates view him as an altruist and philanthropist. With an interest in the theatre, in the early '90s he and his wife, Carol, became supporters of New York's, Symphony Space. The couple provided financial support to help establish Symphony Space and it was there that in 2002 they held a screening of "The Power of Good," an Emmy award-winning documentary about an unassuming Englishman Nicolas Winton who saved the lives of 669 Jewish Czech children during the Nazi Regime..
Mel Cohen has been featured on WABC Eyewitness News, CNNfn, and featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Record Bergen County.

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