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More than 50 years ago, they finished one-two in their class.
Nothing has separated them ever since.
May and Gerry Cohen, top scholars at Harbord Collegiate and the University of Toronto medical school, have been feted by former classmates, longtime patients and colleagues who celebrated their career triumphs and marvelled at their lifelong partnership.
"We're very honoured. It's very very nice," May Cohen, 75, said in an interview in their North Toronto condominium prior to a recent dinner in their honour. "But we don't really see ourselves in this way."
Most have never seen them as anything but stars of the show from elementary school through university, a thriving family medical practice and distinguished academic careers at McMaster University.
Though they first met at Jewish school at about age 4 and May caught Gerry in a Sadie Hawkins Day race at summer camp a half-dozen years later, it wasn't until late in their studies at Harbord that they began dating. They graduated from the downtown Toronto school in 1949, her taking top scholar honours, him placing second.
During six years at U of T, she headed the class — and he was second — all but one year. That was 1952, the year they were married, when he was top student and she was runner-up.
"That was the year she was getting ready to be the traditional wife," quipped Gerry, 75.
That comment, like many between them, was followed by shared laughter. It's the same chemistry that sees them finish each other's sentences and freely boast about their partner but rarely about themselves.
"It's force of habit," May said. "What can you do?"
In 1955, their graduation from U of T was front-page news in the Toronto Star. Under the headline "Wife, hubbie top class in medicine," they were described as a "talented medical team." While the couple was holidaying in the Laurentians and unavailable, her father, journalist Sam Lipshitz, enthused: "I'm sorry I have to be immodest about my daughter, but hers is a remarkable feat."
The story described Gerry as "a well-balanced student with a wide range of extracurricular activities," including playing saxophone in bands to help finance his education.
After nearly 20 years of general practice together, the Cohens were recruited by the department of family medicine at McMaster in Hamilton. For the first time in their professional careers, they had separate offices. It didn't slow them down — she rose to become associate dean of health services and he to chair of the undergraduate medical program and head of a teaching community health centre.
While at McMaster, the Cohens, longtime social activists and pro-choice advocates, developed and taught programs helping family doctors become more aware and address their patients' sexual concerns.
Though retired from the university for nearly a decade, they continue working. May is a member of a provincial government appeals tribunal while Gerry sees patients in an Oakville clinic one day a week as a consulting physician in sexual medicine.
The gold and silver medals they earned from U of T are framed and featured prominently in their home along with photos of their wedding, children and six grandchildren and Gerry playing the clarinet.
"I tolerate that," Gerry said of the medals with a smile. "We spent a lot of money to get them framed."
Though initially more interested in specializing after medical school, May said she "drifted" into family practice with her husband soon after Eric, the eldest of their three sons, was born in 1958. For the first few years, they saw patients in the basement of their house before opening a Downsview office and adding more doctors.
"She delivered two of our kids," said Murray Rubin, 75, who graduated a year behind the Cohens. "But I'm not unusual.
"All the students who followed them at Harbord knew they would be great doctors, so when they graduated and started a practice many of us went to them," said Rubin, an organizer of last week's dinner and silent auction, which served as the annual fundraiser for the Harbord Club, the school's alumni group.
The long list of other well-known Harbord graduates includes retired judge Horace Krever, clothier Harry Rosen, politician and diplomat Stephen Lewis and another dynamic duo — comedy legends Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster.
The Harbord Club has already raised funds to refurbish a memorial to Harbord graduates killed in World War I and next spring will be erecting one to honour those who fell in World War II.
"Harbord had a tremendous impact on everybody who went there at that time," said May Cohen, who, like her husband, is the first-generation Canadian child of Jewish immigrants.
Nodding, Gerry said: "It wasn't just a school. It was a life."
And for the Cohens, it set the stage for a wonderful life together.
"The truth is, we feel very good about the way our lives have turned out," she said. "We're very proud."
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