 From January 1941 until assuming command of the bureau, Cochrane served as the Assistant Head of the Design Division.Cochrane retired from the navy in 1947, while serving as a member of the President's Advisory Committee on the Merchant Marine.He then joined the faculty of MIT, serving from 1947 to 1950 as head of the Department of Ocean Engineering (originally known as the Department of Naval Architecture), and from 1952 to 1954 as head of the School of Engineering.