Dr. Paul G. Cotton, 80, of Aquinnah died peacefully on July 11, 2025.
He was born in Brookline on May 10, 1945. The son of Samuel (“Mickey”) Cotton and Pearl Sirota, Paul attended Brookline High School before studying economics at Columbia University. He attended medical school and completed his medical training in psychiatry at Tufts University.
An esteemed psychiatrist, he began his career at Cambridge Hospital as the medical director of ambulatory community services. He was the founding medical director of Pembroke Hospital in 1982.
After moving to Burlington, Vt., in 1995, he practiced as a qualified forensic psychiatrist with the State of Vermont Department of Corrections. In addition, he worked at Otter Creek Associates and the Howard Center, and served on the medical staff of the department of psychiatry at the University of Vermont. He spent the last chapter of his career at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, on the Island he loved so dearly. A commitment to treating major mental Illness in various settings defined his career.
A complex, mischievous, inward intellectual, Paul’s heart found its outward path after meeting Nancy Shea in 1970. They married in 1972, and she became his life’s greatest passion and partner. They built and decorated homes in Massachusetts, in both Brookline and Aquinnah, and later in Burlington. They shared a love of travel and theater, and together explored the vast world, and saw countless plays. Their cherished decades-long friendships regularly played out in their joyous, chaotic home, centered around their legendary dinner parties. Ultimately, he and Nancy challenged each other, and inspired others to live their best, most authentic lives, filled with drama and always beauty.
Paul prized speed and agility in all he did. His energy and intensity were boundless. A voracious reader, Paul never missed an issue of the New York Times or the New Yorker. It is important to note that in addition to his great personal and professional successes, he relished the management of the mundane. We will forever hear him celebrating a sale at Costco, finding the perfect “creemee” during his endless drives on Vermont country roads, surrendering his trash to the town dump, and securing a choice spot on the ferry.
He is survived by his wife, Nancy; his children, Anna Cotton and son-in-law Damon Runyan of Vineyard Haven, Mary Cotton and her partner Gina Caglione of Essex, Vt.; and Billy Cotton and partner Aaron Cator of New York, N.Y.; grandchildren, Jack Runyan, Will Runyan, and Parker, sister-in-law, Moira Shea; brother, Harvey Cotton, and sister-in-law Cathy Cotton; sister-in-law Vicki Cotton; and nieces and nephews Ben, Eli, and Rachel. He was predeceased by his parents, Mickey and Pearl, and his brother, John Cotton.
A funeral was held on July 18 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center. The family requests that no flowers be sent; donations in Paul’s name can be made to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, online at bit.ly/MVFC_donate, or to the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, online at mvhebrewcenter.org/support-mvhc.