Edith M. Kogan was born in Berlin Germany on June 9, 1929, the daughter of Nathan Miller and Regina Schlanger Miller. In June 1937, due to her father's growing concern about Nazi activities that were beginning to affect their business as furriers, they fled in the middle of the night with their two children, Edith and Benjamin, on a train to France. They eventually arrived in New York City where, thanks to hard work and persistence, they were able to re-establish themselves as furriers on the Grand Concourse of the Bronx which was, at the time, an elegant fashion center.

She obtained a B.A. in Fine Arts at Hunter College in Manhattan. Among the faculty were Ad Reinhardt and Don Kingman, both influential in her work. In 1965, after marrying Nathan Kogan and giving birth to their daughter, she obtained a M.A in Fine Arts from Rutgers University. While she was a student, Roy Lichtenstein and George Segal were among the faculty and also influenced her perspectives and work.

Her husband's sabbatical took her to Paris from 1967-1969, where she did post-graduate studies with William Hayter in his well-known Atelier 17, and with Day Schnable, sculptress.

Following her divorce in the 1970s, she worked at the Princeton Public Library where she organized creative children's programming for 18 years. During this time, she was also very active with women's liberation movement, and specifically the National Organization for Women.

Throughout the '70s and '80s, she continued to paint, sculpt, and exhibit her work, primarily locally. Most of her work in these later years was abstract, using water color, tempera, ink, pencil, pastel, and gouache.

Her health began to decline in the late 1990s and she spent the last few years of her life dealing with significant cardiovascular disease, although continuing to draw and paint and write. Throughout her life, she remained an extraordinarily creative spirit and loving mother and grandmother. She died on October 12, 2011 in University Medical Center at Princeton, at the age of 82. She is survived by her daughter and two granddaughters.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 19 at 3:30 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Princeton at 50 Cherry Hill Road.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in her name to the Arts Council of Princeton, 102 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ 08540.