Read Walter Goldstein's Obituary & Leave Condolences

In memory of

Walter Goldstein

Wantagh, NY

December 23, 1920 - July 2, 2018

Dec 23, 1920 - Jul 2, 2018

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Dear Friends,

July 2, 2018 is the day that I have been dreading my whole life. My father, Walter Goldstein, has died. He was 97 years old. Nothing, no analgesic or whatever wisdom or perspective gained throughout the years can dull the pain or begin to fill the void. My life, and the lives of those who knew him, has been greatly diminished by his loss. And while he wanted to be there always for my mom, the love of his life, by the end he was just worn down and worn out. It was time. So while selfishly we wanted him to keep holding on, he could go no longer and so we must accept it and respect it. We will miss him terribly.

Dad had a wonderful life. Though not impulsive, when he met Mom at a stage door canteen during the war, he proposed to her the very next day. Somehow he just knew. And while she didn’t say yes right away, she did shortly thereafter and they remained very happily married for over 71 years. He pursued a career in art against his parents’ wishes and had a very successful career as a cartoonist and an illustrator. In fact, two of his cartoons appeared in The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, featuring the best cartoons to ever appear in that exalted magazine.

Fearing that cartooning and illustrating would not be sufficient to support his growing family, he became an art teacher at Uniondale High School where he went on to create a humanities program and an alternative school within a school, the perfect outlet for his wide-ranging interests. When Dad initially made the presentation for these new programs I don’t think the school administrators knew what they were getting into … or whom they were dealing with. They soon found out. He stood up for his students and to the administration during protests against the war in Vietnam. He encouraged his students to think independently and to stand by their beliefs, whatever they were. These were his most cherished times, providing him and a core group of those students with an experience both he and they treasured. He often spoke very fondly of those times and the students he loved. He cared for others and he cared about ideas, and God help those who naively chose to challenge him. He was an expert debater, and I pitied those people as he relentlessly ground them down along with their arguments.

Dad retired from Uniondale in 1979. He and Mom spent many happy years traveling and pursuing their shared interests in painting and the arts. By the end of his life I think my dad was well on his way to discovering the path to inner peace, if not the exact location.

Unlike most people I know, I was never afraid I would grow up and turn into my father. I was afraid that I would not turn into my father. Whenever I’m confronted with a problem that I am unsure as how to handle, I think about how Dad would handle it. When I think about how I should act, I ask “What would Dad do?” He was my best man when I married. He will always be my role model. He deeply loved his wife Elaine, his daughter Marcy, his son-in-law Mike, his granddaughter Sara, his daughter-in-law Molan, and me, and we loved him deeply in return. We can only hope that Dad’s immortal soul is now immersed in the world of ideas. We know he will be very happy there.

Given my mother’s fragile condition, Dad felt it best not to have funeral services or a wake. His remains were cremated. When we asked Dad what he wanted us to do with his ashes, he said not to make a big deal about it and that we could put them out front for the sanitation workers to dispose of. That is not what we chose to do with them. But that was quintessentially Dad.

Our love to you all.

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