David M. Cohn; co-founded financial-consulting firm

David M. Cohn, 77, cofounder and chief executive officer of Sage Financial Group in Montgomery County, died Monday, Oct. 8, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Cohn suddenly became ill about five weeks ago and spent his remaining time in the hospital, his son Stephen said. The cause of his illness has not been determined.

Mr. Cohn, who lived in Blue Bell, formed Sage Financial, a wealth-management firm, with sons Stephen and Alan in 1989.

In 1995, Mr. Cohn and his sons formed Sage Online, an Internet-based investment-research firm. "We were one of the early adopters to the Internet," Stephen Cohn said. In 2000, Sage Online was acquired by another investment-information firm.

Mr. Cohn and his wife, Harriet, were married for 50 years.

"Our dad lived life to the fullest and had many areas of interest, including business, exercise, and sports," Stephen Cohn said. "But his No. 1 priority and greatest love in his life was his family."

Mr. Cohn was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Elkins Park. He graduated from Cheltenham High School and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Drexel University, then a master's of business administration in finance and marketing from the University of Maryland.

Before cofounding Sage, Mr. Cohn was senior executive vice president at Decision Sciences Corp., an international management-consulting firm.

"Our dad was an incredibly humble person who considered himself very fortunate and felt so blessed with his life," son Alan said.

In addition to his wife and sons, Mr. Cohn is survived by seven grandchildren.

The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, at Joseph Levine & Sons, 4737 Street Rd., Trevose. The family will observe shivah at Harriet Cohn's house, 7 Farrier Lane, Blue Bell, on Thursday evening, during the day Friday, Saturday evening, and Sunday.

Donations may be made to the David and Harriet Cohn MDS Research Fund, c/o Penn Medicine Development, Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, 3535 Market St., Suite 750, Philadelphia 19104.

Donations also may be made to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, 333 E. Lancaster Ave. 414, Wynnewood, Pa. 19096.