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In memory of
Nina Segre
April 4, 1940 - August 12, 2019
Apr 4, 1940 - Aug 12, 2019
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Nina's obituary
Segré became a lawyer as a second career, graduating in 1974 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Arlin M. Adams for two years before joining Dechert LLP, where she became co-chair of its real estate department. When the firm held partners meetings at a city club that made women come in through the basement, she refused to go. The firm got the message and changed the venue. She left in 1993 to form her own firm, Segré and Senser, with Karen Senser.
In 1998, the partners joined Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhodes, where Segré had an active commercial real estate practice and served as chair of the real estate department. She retired as senior counsel to the firm a year ago.
She was born April 4, 1940 to Victor and Naomi (Berlin) Gordon, in New Haven, CT, where her father practiced law. After Hillhouse High School, she went to Radcliffe College, where she majored in bio-chemistry, working with Prof. James D. Watson, the future Nobel laureate. After college, she obtained a Master’s of Art in Teaching from Harvard, and continued to do research in various laboratories, from Cambridge, England to San Francisco, California, and Geneva, Switzerland. (Her then husband, Gino Segré, was a physicist whose work took him to several universities before he settled down to teach at the University of Pennsylvania.)
Segré excelled at law school - and was elected to Law Review - at a time when few classmates were women, and even fewer had three young children. After a divorce, she married Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., a professor of sociology at Penn, in 1985. Together, they supported many liberal causes, mainly related to education.
Through the Philadelphia Futures program, the couple began supporting students, and mentored and supported twin brothers for nearly two decades.
Later, they started College Works, a program to prepare high school students for the SATs, help them apply to college, and provide support while they were in school. (It later became incorporated into the school system.) Typically, the couple spoke little about their philanthropic work, though close friends were aware of their deep commitment.
In 2016 and 2018, they organized a voter registration program in which high school students canvassed their friends and their neighborhoods to sign up new voters. She also supported the Curtis School of Music and cultivated their gardens.
Segré used her real estate knowledge in various programs including The Reinvestment Fund that promoted low income housing and revitalization of lower-income communities. She was active in Democratic politics, and worked with RepresentPA to get more women elected to the Pennsylvania legislature.
Friends saw her as the hub of a large, extended family whose legal pad contained dozens of notes to herself: to call a sick friend, visit someone who could not travel, or organize dinner for 15. Ultra-organized and even-keeled, Segré was a person friends counted on when in crisis, and she was always willing to investigate some new artistic performances, and comment with a pertinent quip.
She traveled widely with her husband, who even after retiring as the Zellerbach Professor of Family Sociology, was a popular guest at sociology conferences around the world. She took advantage of their travels to teach law in Milan, Singapore and Berkeley. They spent summers in Canaan, N.Y., where they were frequent visitors to Tanglewood and other music festivals. She also managed a Rolodex-worth of house guests – with characteristic aplomb and ease.
Segré died on a family vacation in Alaska, surrounded by family, and eager to plan a party celebrating the 80th birthdays of herself and her husband and their 35th wedding anniversary.
In addition to her husband, Segré is survived by her three daughters, Katia Segré Cohen, Julie Segré and Michele Segré, two step-children, Sarah Furstenberg and Ben Furstenberg; six grandchildren, two brothers, Fred Gordon and Eric Gordon, and a sister, Ilse Gordon.
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations in Nina’s honor to Represent PA or Philadelphia Futures.
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Please consider a gift to Philadelphia Futures.
$1,350.00
Raised by 6 people
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Recent contributions
In lieu of flowers
Please consider a gift to Philadelphia Futures.
$1,350.00
Raised by 6 people
Recent contributions
Recent contributions
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Michele Segre.
