Horace Mann School remembers with fondness the following members of our community who have passed away

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Barbara Lee Melamed

 

Horace Mann School and the Alumni Office lost a gem of a colleague in September. Barbara Melamed, Gift Processing Associate and HM employee for more than 43 years, passed away after a 25-year battle with  cancer.  Barbara will be remembered as a kind-hearted and selfless individual who touched the lives of many. Her legacy of love and generosity will continue to inspire all those who had the privilege of knowing her. She will be sorely missed but never forgotten. Her obituary reads as follows:

 

Barbara Melamed (nee Billick), a loving and devoted mother and grandmother, passed away peacefully on September 10, 2023, at the age of 78 after a long and courageous battle with lung cancer. She was born on July 20, 1945, in New York, NY. Barbara lived a full and active life, always surrounded by her cherished friends and family. Known for her kind and generous nature, she consistently put the needs of her loved ones before her own. She will be remembered for her warm smile and her ability to always find something nice to say about others.

 

Barbara had a long and successful career spanning 43 years in the Alumni and Development Office of Horace Mann School in Riverdale, NY. Her dedication and hard work made a lasting impact on the school and the community it serves and was a source of pride for her.

 

When she wasn't working, Barbara found joy in spending time with her family and friends. She had impeccable taste in shows, often knowing about the latest and greatest before the critics did. Additionally, she enjoyed challenging herself and her grandchildren with word puzzles and trivia games on a daily basis.

 

Barbara is survived by her daughter Jennifer M. Iannuzzi of Wilton, CT, and her son-in-law Christopher M. Iannuzzi, MD. She was a loving grandmother to Benjamin L. Iannuzzi, Cole N. Iannuzzi, and Sydney E. Iannuzzi. She will be deeply missed by her family and friends.

 

Barbara was preceded in death by her mother Edna Billick, father Nathan Billick, and sister Susan Billick. Their memories will forever be cherished by those who loved them.

 

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the SMS Research Foundation in honor of her beloved granddaughter Sydney. Barbara was a passionate supporter of the foundation and its mission.

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Howard Wolf ’54 passed away on Saturday, October 7, 2023. The following obituary appeared in The Buffalo News on October 14, 2023.

 

Howard R. Wolf not only taught a wide range of styles and topics in literature at the University at Buffalo, he also tackled them as an author. In addition to modern American literature, he lectured on short fiction, autobiography and literary journalism. In turn, he produced a novel (“Broadway Serenade”), a memoir (“Forgive the Father”) and numerous short stories. Poet and UB professor emeritus Carl Dennis noted that at the time of his death, Mr. Wolf was gathering for publication “a collection of his short stories that featured the character Ludwig Fried, a semi-comic double whom he describes in a preface to one of his fiction collections, ‘Second Time Around,’ as a ‘restless loner, dreamer, introspective writer, and a 20th century embodiment of Jewish history who longs for security and thinks he needs to travel to find it.’” Mr. Wolf enjoyed traveling for pleasure and for his profession, though security in faraway places wasn’t guaranteed. On one occasion, he was robbed. On another, he narrowly escaped a tsunami. He died Oct. 7 in Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center after a short struggle with lung cancer. He was 86. Born in New York City, the son of an impoverished garment worker and the younger of two boys, he attended the academically challenging Horace Mann School in the Bronx, where he fell in love with literature and writing. His favorite authors were F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell. He told former Buffalo News reporter Louise Continelli he once chatted with Hemingway in the Ritz Bar in Paris. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in English in 1958 at Amherst College and wrote for the school paper. He went on to receive a Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1960, served in the Army and won the Hopwood Award for Fiction at the University of Michigan, where he taught composition and completed his Ph.D. in 1967. Later that year he joined the English Department at UB and soon was part an experimental program to teach composition to college and high school students. His colleague Carl Dennis noted, “In a time when a dominant strain of critical theory in literature departments was deeply skeptical about the claim of literature to represent life, Howard was an ardent humanist, believing that literature helps us understand the world, that the skills that make us appreciative readers of fiction are the same skills we use to make sense of experience.” He served as director of English undergraduate studies at UB. Becoming an emeritus professor in 2007, he was a senior fellow in the English Department and continued as an adjunct professor until 2010. He also taught a course on travel writing for UB’s Discovery Seminars Program. He lectured in at least 20 countries and wrote extensively on his travels. He was a Fulbright scholarship lecturer at Ankara University, Turkey, in 1983-84 and at the University of the Free State in South Africa in 1998. He also lectured for three years at the University of Hong Kong and taught in UB’s Malaysian Cooperative Program. He spoke on literary topics at meetings of the F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway societies, at colleges and universities, and at local high schools. He was elected to the PEN American Center, an honor reserved for authors who have published books of distinction, and was a fellow of the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H., in 2016. Author of 10 books and more the 300 publications, his collection of personal essays, “The Education of a Teacher,” was included in “The Call to Reform Liberal Education: Great Books of 1987.” “I’m like a Henry Jamesian figure who would like to be more like Norman Mailer,” he told News contributing writer Esther Harriott Swartz in 1979 after the publication of “Forgive the Father.” In addition to his fiction, he produced poetry, a collection of one-act plays (“Home at the End of the Day”) and saw the collaborative publication of two novellas about outsiders who yearn to belong – his own “Of Two Lives on the Lower Golan” and Chris Helvey’s “Behind the Eight Ball.” He also was a frequent contributor to columns on the editorial pages of The News. His most recent essay, a reflection on Shakespeare and “The Winter’s Tale,” appeared Aug. 28. His manuscripts and letters have been collected by the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections since 1971.

He raised his daughter Alexis as a single father after his marriage to Judith Essenson ended in divorce in 1967.In addition to his daughter, survivors include four grandsons.

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The Alumni Office recently learned that Deane Penn ’59 passed away in 2021. A death notice from northjersey.com read as follows:  Dr. Deane Penn, M.D., 79, of Alpine, NJ, is survived by his beloved wife of 50 years, Susan, his daughter Stacey, son Jonathan, and five grandchildren. Dr. Penn was born in The Bronx, NY, and raised in Riverdale. A graduate of Cornell University and a board certified gastroenterologist and internist for over 35 years, he was the founder of a five-partner private practice in Fort Lee, NJ. Dr. Penn had a lifelong passion for helping others improve their health. Concerned about the explosion in obesity in America, he opened and ran a Center for Medical Weight Loss clinic in Englewood, NJ. Through his sympathetic, encouraging, and optimistic approach, he positively impacted countless lives through his care. He was also very active in the Jewish community, and held leadership roles in numerous organizations including the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey and the Jewish Home of Rockleigh. He led by example with integrity and commitment to compassionate medical care and philanthropic causes throughout his life.

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Erik Gann ’63 passed away at home in San Francisco among his loved ones on July 19, 2023, after a battle with cancer. Dr. Gann was born on October 27, 1946, in Brooklyn to Mitzi-Ann Haim Gann and Lee Gann. He attended PS 187, Horace Mann School in the Bronx, graduated from Yale University in 1967 with a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy, and earned his M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1971. He completed a medical internship at French Hospital and a residency in psychiatry at Mt. Zion Hospital. He received his psychoanalytic training at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute (now the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis). He served as medical director of adult mental health services and director of training at Menninger San Francisco Bay Area. For nearly five decades he maintained a busy psychiatry and psychoanalysis private practice, first in New York City, and then in San Francisco. Dr. Gann was passionate about psychoanalysis. He served as a leader and educator in numerous psychoanalytic communities. He was instrumental in the restructuring of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SFCP) into its present form. He served as president of SFCP and was active on the Board of Trustees. He was also a leader and active member in the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA), where he was an architect of APsA’s Department of Psychoanalytic Education and was critical in its evolution to its present form. He loved the challenge of applying ideas from other fields to psychoanalytic thought and theory. Months before the onset of his illness and death, he was in the process of planning for the next Psychoanalytic Scholarship Forum bringing neuroscientists, physicists, and psychoanalysts together on the topic of artificial intelligence to wrestle with what they each envision for the future. He intended to lead them into a discussion of how the development of artificial intelligence, perhaps sentient, will affect our view of consciousness and ultimately the enterprise of psychoanalysis. He was a beloved teacher, Freudian scholar, and training - supervising analyst at SFCP, PINC (Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California), and at the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute. He was a sought-after consultant for trainees as well as colleagues across the country. He also served as a principal in the Boswell Group for Psychodynamic Management Consulting. Dr. Gann was a man of many talents and had an uncommon love of life. He enjoyed deeply the pleasures of the world. He had a unique ability to help others appreciate and feel grateful for beauty in themselves and their lives. He loved tennis, singing, playing the piano and the guitar and was accomplished at them all. He loved to make and appreciate art and to witness the feats of great athletes. Fluent in French and Italian, he loved to travel and to learn other languages and about other cultures, both ancient and modern. He loved to wear three-piece suits with French-cuffed shirts and cuff links. He loved fountain pens and watches. He loved Scotch whiskey, martinis, fine wine, India pale ale, and rare steak. He loved conversation, whether to explore simple or complex ideas with family, friends or colleagues, or to learn about other people, whom he made feel seen, heard, understood, and appreciated – and often amused. No one felt lonely in his company. His intelligence, wit, and generosity were enjoyed by many. He adored spending time with his family and playing with his young grandchildren. Like Ulysses (or perhaps Auntie Mame) he “drank life to the lees.” Dr. Gann is survived by his family:  Dr. Phyllis J Cath, Elliot G. Gann, Alexander (Sasha) G. Gann, Cory Gann (Sharon), Evan Konecky, Laura Cath Rubenstein (Erik Olson), Andrew Cath Rubenstein (Lucy Wells), Rose Cath Olson, Claire Rubenstein Olson, and Henry August Wells Rubenstein.

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A member of the Class of 1971 shared the sad news that Frank Decolvenaere ’71 was killed on March 5, 2020, when he was hit by a car while walking his dog. He and his dog Stormy were struck by a teen driver near the corner of Fourth Avenue and 101^st Street in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn. Stormy was injured but managed to walk home 10 blocks to alert Frank’s wife, Demetra. Councilmember Justin Brannan approached Frank’s family about the prospect of naming a new local dog park in Frank’s memory.  “Frank was a beloved husband, father, dog-lover, and neighbor, and a retired attorney who lived in New York City his entire life,” Brannan wrote in a letter to Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Martin Maher. “He and his wife Demetra were well-known among neighbors and local business owners – they constantly patronized our neighborhood establishments and could be seen several times a day walking their dog, Stormy, near John Paul Jones Park, which is just down the street from their home.” (brooklynpaper.com) As the sign at the entrance to the dog park states: 

 

 

 

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The Alumni Office recently learned that Robert Schvey ‘71 of Jacksonville, FL, passed away in August of 2021. An obituary was not available at the time of publication.

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Hirotoshi Yoshida ’81 passed away on or around October 4, 2023. An obituary was not available at the time of publication.

 

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A former parent who was instrumental in leading the Horace Mann School Parents Association for several years, Diane Koplik, wife of the late Kenneth Koplik '57 and mother of David Koplik ’97, passed away peacefully at her home on the Upper East Side on Thursday, October 12, 2023 at age 78.

Diane spent many years as a teacher, originally in Queens and later at the Nursery School at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan where she taught many future HM students.  She became closely involved with Horace Mann when her son David became a student there and kept HM in the Koplik family alongside her husband Ken, eventually becoming head of the Parents Association.  When her term as PA president ended, the school wrote of her in a letter:

Our school, in the past two years, has experienced its share of change and turmoil.  During that time, as the head of our PA, you, Diane – on the other hand – have always been steadfast and smiling.

When no one was certain what direction to follow or what course to pursue, you were our leader and with your help, the PA achieved great success – and for that we all say thank you.

When you saw the potential for our organization to charter new avenues, you were the creative source who successfully organized our efforts and energies so that we could become a more valuable asset to the school – and for that we all say thank you.

Diane, every one of us in this room appreciates all the time and energy and effort you have given to the PA these past years.  We know that you have put your heart and your soul into our organization.  And we all admire the fact that you have been just as caring and concerned with school events and issues in these last few months as you were in your first few months in office.  Moreover, we continually marvel at your undying good cheer and your unflappable nature.  The word burnout doesn’t exist for Diane Koplik.

Diane leaves behind a legacy of warmth and affection to many colleagues, friends, and family who knew and were loved by "Aunt Diane" and touched the lives of so many people. Her son David wrote, “Thank you, Mom, for all your years of unconditional love and support and always reminding me the importance of being a good, honest person.”

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Diane’s memory can be made to 1 of the following organizations.

UJA Federation of New York - https://www.ujafedny.org/donate

American Cancer Society - https://donate.cancer.org/