Dick Cochrane was a Spitfire pilot, lounge singer, and founder of Aid to Women.
Campaign Life Coalition national president Jim Hughes recalls that his friend Richmond (Dick) Cochrane lived an extraordinary and varied life that began in India in 1925 and ended in Canada 92 years later with stops as a Spitfire pilot in the India and Pakistan air forces, a lounge singer in Brooklyn, and pro-life work in Toronto.
Dick Cochrane was born in India in 1925, one of four children. Before Sept. 11, 2001, he told future Interimeditor Paul Tuns about being stopped by a group of Muslims as a teenager in India and was asked to recite the Koran. He could, and was let go. His friends could not and he never saw them again. He credited his Jesuit education with saving his life. As a young adult he piloted the famous Spitfire fighter aircraft for both the Indian and Pakistani air force.
He eventually moved to the United States and supported himself as a lounge singer. In the 1990s, Jim Hughes met Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua on a street in Washington while talking on the phone with Cochrane. Cardinal Bevilacqua asked if that was Dick Cochrane on the call, whom he apparently knew. Hughes gave the prelate his cell phone and Cardinal Bevilacqua called him “Bunny,” which was Dick’s cabaret and night club name. Apparently the former auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn was a fan.
Cochrane eventually settled in Toronto and found himself doing pro-life work. Hughes asked two others to help found a crisis pregnancy center in the heart of the city, both of whom declined after praying about it. Cochrane asked if could give it a try. Aid to Women was born, later merging with Joanne Dieleman’s The Way Inn. Aid to Women has saved hundreds of babies in the 33 years it has operated. Hughes said Cochrane “thought the pro-life movement should take care of both women and babies” which Aid to Women did and still does admirably. He said “Dick did not let the times they did not save babies get him down.”
Cochrane worked with former fellow Toronto Catholic District Board trustee Frank Kennedy to create fundraising boxes that children could use at Halloween as an alternative to UNICEF boxes; in the 1990s, several Catholic schools in the Greater Toronto Area distributed the Aid to Women boxes which became an important annual fundraiser for the organization. In 2008, at a dinner marking Aid to Women’s 25th anniversary, Cochrane said, “My years at Aid to Women can never be forgotten – over 20 years of my life that I would gladly do all over again. In fact, it was just a labour of love.”
In his funeral homily, Fr. Oliver Iwuchukwu, pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish, Highland Creek in Scarborough, said Cochrane was a man who lived his faith, notably through his pro-life work. Hughes attested to that in his remarks. Cochrane was one of the 18 named pro-lifers hit with a civil law suit in 1993 by the Bob Rae NDP Ontario government for interfering with an abortionist’s business of killing preborn children. He was an accountant for Campaign Life Coalition for 15 years, and organized trips to Art Park in Lewiston, New York, for employees. He also organized fundraisers at Massey Hall with professional entertainers. Hughes said Cochrane once traveled to New York to (unsuccessfully) convince crooner Perry Como to perform. However, Hal Roach and the St. Michael’s Choir School did perform, and Hughes said not only did they raise significant funds, but also built up CLC’s reputation.
Hughes said Cochrane encouraged his family to send son Michael to Cardinal Carter Academy to help develop his natural singing ability; Michael Hughes is a professional singer today and when his father visited Cochrane, the former singer would always ask about the son’s career.
He is survived by his sisters Colleen and Joan, and children Clare and Peter, and two grandchildren. He is predeceased by his wife Dorothea (Dolly), who had a stroke and died during the court case for the 18, and his sister Zena.
