 From 1947-1969, Cochran also was a trustee of Staunton's Planter's Bank and Trust Company, and was the bank's president during the last six of those years.After the war, University of Virginia trustee Emily Pancake Smith urged Cochran to run for the Legislature, and he later worked with her on the Woodrow Wilson Centennial in France and Staunton in 1950.Cochran also later served on the Board of Visitors at Virginia Tech (1960-1968) and Mary Baldwin College (1967-1981) and as a trustee of the Virginia Historical Society.