“Sandy” was born in Brooklyn and with the exception of travels lived his 79 years here. He loved this borough even when it was scoffed at by others who viewed it as dangerous and decrepit.  He appreciated the concept of neighborhood and saw Brooklyn as a conglomerate of different villages, yet a sophisticated city as interesting to explore as “those far away places”. 

His parents were both graduates of LIU and he was proud that his mother was a NYC teacher and his father a NYC Policeman.  He attended public schools until he entered Pratt Institute from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Industrial Design. He worked for Ideal Toy company but

was offered an Activity Therapist job on the Adolescent Psychiatric Unit in Kings County Hospital. He had many talents, but his natural ability to work with people was unrivaled. The boys on the unit sang “to sir with love” in his honor. He moved up to the director’s position but ultimately gave designing toys another try at the Henry Katz Organization.  

After a year, he decided the world didn’t need one more Humpty Dumpty Table Top, and he returned to the psychiatric field at Brookdale Hospital and Medical Center. He audited their residency and over the 49 years, until he retired, became the director of activity and group therapy. His empathy and sense of humor endeared him to even the most troubled patients and they applauded when a session ended. He ultimately provided supervision for art therapists, occupational therapists, psychology interns and psychiatric residents.  

Through his work, his humanity enriched Brooklyn, but he also was a draft counselor during the Vietnam War, was block president of President Street, and was a one man rescue team if anyone was in danger. He was an excellent horse back rider and co- owned the Prospect Park Riding Stable to prevent it from closing.  He played banjo and guitar, and was a talented photographer and artist. He provided excitement and joy as a husband, father, relative and friend..good natured and charming with a wit that lit up lives.  

Sandy is survived by his wife, Carol, son Billy, daughter in law Amanda and brother Rik.  

John Corporon, age 92, died at his home on Tenth Street in Park Slope on February 4^th. Born in Arcadia, Kansas, he went on to a storied career in broadcast journalism in the  post-war period. For 24 years he was News Director of WPIX, channel 11, in New York City. He broke into the news business in Louisiana where he exposed a pattern of voter suppression. One of the highlights of his career was producing the only known interview of Lee Harvey Oswald just months before the assassination of President Kennedy. John was President of the Overseas Press Club of America and the Associated Press Broadcast Board.  

John and his wife Harriett (who pre-deceased him two years ago) traveled widely to Europe, enjoyed a month on Fire Island every summer, had a 40 year subscription to the Metropolitan Opera and supported the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Museum. He was very proud to be a member of the “Ninety Plus Club” of Good Neighbors of Park Slope, where he was the youngest member!

Sonya Frye

Matthew J. Harris died on August 2 at the Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He was born June 16, 1942 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Lillian Freund Harris and Milford Harris. He attended Shaker Heights High School, where he was captain of the varsity football team, graduated in 1960, then went on to Colgate University. In the summer of 1964, he traveled to Mississippi as a civil rights worker to participate in SNCC efforts to register voters, and he remained attuned to civil rights issues throughout his life.



In 1965, he was married to Leslie Aurbach, a fellow Shakerite; this union lasted for ten years, ending in divorce. The couple had two daughters, Lauren Victoria who predeceased him in 1973 and Evan Elizabeth. During the later 1960s, he worked in New York City in publishing as an editor at Doubleday, then moved with his family in the early 1970s to the east end of Long Island to co-run The Old Post Office Cinema on Newtown Lane in East Hampton. He left East Hampton for stints in New York City, the South of France, and Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he pursued a Masters in Fine Arts in creative writing at the University of Arkansas. 

In 1979 he married painter Margaret Bowland; they had two children, Milford Jerome and Julia Banks. The couple settled in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he remained situated until his death. At the age of 52 he entered New York Law School, and was admitted to the bar in the state of New York in 1997. He practiced law in various areas, including immigration law, taking on numerous asylum cases. Matthew Harris was an avid reader with a broad knowledge and fine understanding of literature. He acted as a literary mentor to those close to him, and as a reader in the literary efforts of both of his daughters. 

He is survived by his wife Margaret Bowland, children Evan Harris, Ford Harris and Banks Harris, by his Grandsons Cosmo Hamada, Rock Hamada, Nick Harris, and Otto Harris, and by his brother Seth Harris. A memorial service is being planned for September 12, to be held in Brooklyn.



Beloved mother of Molly and Jake, grandmother of Max, Lucy, Zoe and Benjamin, wife and partner of Steve for 51 years, and devoted friend to many who loved her dearly, Roberta, known to all as Bobbi, died peacefully on June 28, at 73, surrounded by close friends. She was a nurse for over 50 years, first in hospitals, then as a home care administrator, and finally, as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, earning her license well into her 60’s, after two masters, including an MBA. She believed deeply in helping people, even those she barely knew, through their journeys through mental and physical illness. She was a fighter who battled cancer for 55 years, overcoming Hodgkins’s Disease at age 19, and staving off stage four lung cancer for more that four years. The radiation that saved her life as a youth damaged her bones and her heart, but it didn’t stop her. In her last year, she proudly joined in letter writing campaigns in support of candidates fighting to defeat fascism. She will be deeply missed by her family and friends.

Bobbi will also be missed by the members of her GNPS knitting group who enjoyed seeing her lovely knitted creations and discussing life and politics with her every few weeks!



Elizabeth Hughes Schneewind, 81, died on the 12th of June, 2021, in Brooklyn, New York. Born May 11, 1940, in Chicago, she attended the University of Chicago Lab School and in 1959 received a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Chicago. She later obtained an M.A. in philosophy from Brown University and was ABD in philosophy at Yale University.

Elizabeth and her husband Jerome B. Schneewind resided in New Haven, CT; Pittsburgh, PA; Brooklyn, NY; and Baltimore, MD. They returned to Brooklyn upon retirement. Elizabeth received a MSW from the University of Maryland in 1985. She worked at Jewish Family Services in Baltimore, published on geriatric care, and was an accredited translator of German philosophy.

Elizabeth is survived by her husband of 58 years, Jerome B. Schneewind; three daughters, Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah; four grandchildren, Leonora, Elizabeth, James, and Sebastian; and her sister, Helen Brock. She is also survived by her sons-in-law Bruce Tindall and Nickolas Gikas and her daughter-in-law Janelle Heideman. She was predeceased by her parents, Everett Cherrington Hughes and Helen McGill Hughes.

A funeral was held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Tuesday, June 15.

The family requests donations to the American Civil LIberties Union in lieu of flowers.



Tom DeLamarter (1944-2021) was born in Fort Braggs, North Carolina, son of a nurse mother and a military father. Growing up as a “military brat”, he moved around frequently including spending his kindergarten years in Japan and attending middle school in Germany. He rarely went for two years in a row to the same school. After school he moved to various colleges earning both Bachelors and Master degrees, the last of which was a Masters Degree from Yale economics department where he also taught.

Always curious about the world round about him he went with his first wife, Nancy Petaja, as a Peace Corps volunteer to India then traveled home overland. Shortly after returning, they left again for Tom to take advantage of a scholarship to study in Louvain, Belgium, where his first son was born. 

Back in the US, Tom had various jobs, most noteworthy of which was as an economist for the Justice Department in the anti-trust case against IBM. It was during that case that he was moved to New York from Washington (where his second son was born) and he settled in Park Slope. It was in the midst of a crack epidemic and he had two rent-controlled apartments in the building he bought but Tom never let “little” things like that get in his way. He later went on to write about the case in a well-received book called Big Blue: IBM’s Use and Abuse of Power. He spent summers during that time cycling in UK, Ireland and France with his two teenage sons.

In 1990, when Eastern Europe was breaking apart and communism was coming to an end, Tom accepted a job teaching at the former Karl Marx University in Budapest, Hungary. It was there that he met his second wife, Helen. He started traveling to Lviv, Ukraine, and founded a consulting company as well as set up a management institute.  

Tom and Helen traveled extensively to off-the-beaten-track parts of Eastern Europe and moved to the Balkans. Tom taught on a Fulbright Scholarship in Ljubljana, Slovenia before they moved to Montenegro. They discovered sailing and bought a 24 foot sailboat which they used to sail in the Adriatic and throughout Scandinavia.

They returned to Park Slope in 2009 and joined GNPS about 4 years ago. A great reader, Tom also loved meeting people and having conversations where he delved deep. His favorite passion was to pick up “treasures” from the street and refinish or repurpose them, the perfect Park Slope hobby.



After declining health, particularly related to Parkinson’s and dementia, Tom died peacefully in his sleep on January 12^th with Helen by his side. The Saturday before his passing was Tom’s birthday. Friends sent him messages, photographs and memories from across the world and he had a “living memorial” week where these were shared with Tom in his awake and lucid spells. His last evening was spent with his oldest son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons on Portal – a calm and happy evening.

Helen DeLamarter 



Zipporah died on November 11, 2020 at Calvary Hospital Hospice, in Brooklyn. She had been battling a recurrence of breast cancer for over a year and finally decided to forgo further treatment at the beginning of October. She was fortunate to have had many friends and relatives who visited her in her final months and remained lucid until her last day, albeit very sedated. Shortly after her passing, a Zoom call was held as her memorial due to Covid restrictions. During this virtual gathering, many who participated recalled her gift of connecting with people, her unfailing sense of justice, and her always-caring spirit. Following the service, it was decided that an in-person memorial would be held in the spring in Prospect Park, where a tree would be planted in her memory. Such a tribute will be fitting because Zipporah loved Nature and visited the park and Botanical Gardens often. The date and time for this ceremony will be announced later. 

Zipporah grew up in New York City and entered the Peace Corps at an early age. She was assigned to a village in Thailand, where she taught English. After completing her assignment, she moved to San Francisco and lived there for some time before returning home. During this period, she lived in Greenwich Village and worked in several graphic studios. Later in her career, she joined Care for the Homeless, in Manhattan, in an administrative capacity. During our friendship, she rarely spoke about her work, but it was apparent to me that her sense of caring for the less fortunate was always a factor in the life-choices she came to make over the years. 

I’m not sure when Zipporah moved to Park Slope. However, during her memorial, a young man who lived in her building on Berkeley Place spoke about being on the Coop board with her for many years. He came to regard her, he said, as family. During her time in Park Slope, she was active in the Food Coop and became a strong advocate for eating healthy foods. When I met her at the YMCA on 9th St., she had been formally retired for some time, but had started a babysitting service. Her business card featured a whimsical pen and ink drawing of her and advertised her as someone who could be a substitute loving grandparent for kids who were living away from their extended families. Zipporah never married or had children, but clearly enjoyed being a sort of Mary Poppins-figure to the children for whom she cared. She delighted in taking her charges to concerts and in finding special gifts that they would enjoy. One of her long-time friends has said that she believes that caring for children was Zipporah’s true calling. 

Zipporah loved music and played her grand piano beautifully, even continuing to take lessons from a beloved teacher in the year before she died. Our friendship began by her asking if I’d be interested in playing duets together, which became a joy for both of us. As we got to know each other, she also shared information about activities and organizations she thought might interest me, including Good Neighbors of Park Slope. As I later discovered, I was not the only one she helped in this way. Many friends who spoke during her memorial service fondly recalled how she had touched them in supportive ways. 

No remembrance would be complete without mentioning Zipporah’s cats, Lola and Carmencita. They were her constant companions and her children in some sense. One of the hardest things for her at the end of her life was being separated from them. Thankfully, a neighbor in her building offered to adopt both of them, and that greatly eased her mind. 

Zipporah will be missed by her many friends and relatives, but her spirit will remain with all who were fortunate enough to know her. 

– Mary Jo Strickland 

James Gamhing Li, AKA "Jimmy" died suddenly and unexpectedly the evening of October 4th at the age of 71.

Jimmy, my partner for 18 years, lived a rich and diverse life. He was born and raised in New York City. However, his grandfather came to the United States as a young man, by jumping ship in Canada and then traveling to the United States, to obtain citizenship and make a home here.  

His grandfather left his son, Ging, in China, but when Ging was 10 the grandfather sent for him. The boy who knew no English arrived in California with a tag around his neck with his father's name and address in New York City. Somehow he made his way alone to the Big Apple to join his father, and the two of them worked 3 jobs a day to make a home, send money back to the family in China and start a laundry business. When Ging himself became a young man he returned to China for a brief visit. His mother (Jimmy's grandmother) found him a 16-year-old bride and after a 3-day courtship, the young couple traveled back to New York. Jimmy was born a year later.

Jimmy spent his early days working in his family's laundry, going to public school and Chinese school, and immersing himself in American life. As all his friends knew, he had a quick and curious mind and was very personable. He loved talking to people and helping people.  He became a very successful salesman where he used his people skills to good advantage. He also became a tour guide on the NYC double-decker buses, his favorite job. There he regaled people with his humor and extensive knowledge, and enthusiasm about the wonders of New York City. Jimmy also studied acupuncture and massage therapy. And, If you told Jimmy you had a physical problem, he would research all the alternative methods of healing and send you an extensive list of possible cures.

As one of his friends said, Jimmy was a Renaissance Man. He loved to travel, he loved to read, he loved theatre, art, and music (especially Doo Wop) and he especially loved to cook. My kitchen is filled with myriad spices I don't know what to do with - but he did!  

In his later years, Jimmy attended many Senior Citizen Centers. He took numerous different classes there on all sorts of topics. Towards the end of his life, he began developing his creative and emotional side by taking Reiki, meditation, sound healing, creative writing, poetry, and humor workshops. 

Although Jimmy didn't talk about it, I believe he knew on some level he would be soon dying from underlying medical problems, and he prepared for it. We worked together on hosting an Aging and Transitions Group through Good Neighbors of Park Slope, where as a group we often spoke of our own mortality. We also worked together at the Life and Death Discussion Group sponsored by Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. And he attended many seminars and death discussion groups on his own, often telling me that when he died he wanted a Green Burial. I honored that wish. We buried him in a bamboo casket in Rosendale Cemetery near New Paltz, New York where he blends in with the earth he loved.

Susan Bady

Good Neighbors of Park Slope mourns the loss of our member Susan Brody, who passed away on November 15, 2020, at the age of 72. Susan grew up in Queens and became a high school English teacher, working for 34 years at South Shore High School, at Prospect Heights High School and finally at the Teacher Center where she taught NYC teachers how to teach. She was well-loved and sought after to help with problems.

She loved languages, and enjoyed spending every summer with her husband Joe Zarba at their home in Sicily. She also loved spending time with their children and 7 grandchildren.

Another great love for Susan was Shakespeare, and according to Joe, she “ate, slept and breathed Shakespeare”, reading and memorizing all of the plays. When Good Neighbors started a Shakespeare Reading Group in May, 2020 she was one of the first to register, and worked to learn to use Zoom so that she could be part of the weekly group. She is remembered by the teacher Jules Trachten and many of the group members as one of the most active and enthusiastic participants in the group, who frequently volunteered to read passages and asked and answered many questions. Jules adds: “I will always think back to her enthusiasm and eagerness. She even insisted that I send out class reminders two days early so that she would always be totally ready.”

She is survived by her loving husband Joe Zarba and his sons Zachary and Sacha, daughter Gillian, brother Robert and the seven grandchildren she cherished.

It has been a pleasure to know her and she will be missed.

Jules Trachten

Joyce Jed

Joe Zarba 

William (Bill) Fink passed away on June 7, 2020 at the age of 93. He was born on June 24, 1926.

He had a full and long life. He worked hard, traveled and was a wonderful father to his two children, his grandchildren and his great grandchild. If any word could describe Bill it would be the word "educator". He loved teaching; from his profession as an industrial arts teacher in a city high school, his interest in cooking, in art, in music, in the fight for equality and the environment. He loved the ocean and fishing and would teach anybody who asked how to cast or bait a hook.

He had a quick wit, wrote many poems, and with a dry martini in hand was always ready for life's adventures. He will be missed.

We grieve the passing of Kathy Sonderman who died peacefully in her home on Ninth Street. Kathy was the wife of Bob Levine, and a loving mother to Brian and Emily. She had lived with Parkinson’s disease since 1986 and participated in their Unity Walk every year. As her illness progressed she bravely underwent groundbreaking surgeries involving implants of deep brain stimulators over a period of 20 years to slow down the progression of this terrible disease. Her brain was donated to the Neurological Institute at Columbia so that the research may help future patients with Parkinson’s.

Kathy led a very full life in Park Slope. She taught special ed in New York City public schools; she was an active congregant at Brooklyn Heights First Unitarian Church, enjoying many summer vacations with her family at Star Island, a close affiliate. She was a member of a local sewing group with her friends and she was an early organizer of a successful Park Slope babysitting group. Her volunteer work included the Cuddler program at Methodist Hospital helping to cuddle babies.

More recently Kathy attended many Good Neighbors events, despite being wheelchair-bound, with the devoted help of Bob. Our love and prayers go out to Bob, Brian and Emily at this sad time.

Jasmine Melzer and Pat Bernstein

It is with great sadness that we mourn the death of Jules Peemoeller, a member of Good Neighbors of Park Slope and our friend.

Jules was engaged in the very early days of our organization's founding and began by playing scrabble! He then took his long- time experience as a Big Apple Tour Leader and volunteered to do tours for our members. The first offerings filled slowly but his reputation grew. Within a few months, his tours were filled as quickly as they were posted. He often repeated tours to certain areas of New York City to accommodate his followers. He reveled in the city’s neighborhoods and in the enjoyment experienced by the members that went on his tours.

Those who knew his art and saw it displayed at Good Neighbors events came to realize that he had taken his particular view of the various parks on his tours and had artfully transferred them through his work on paper.

He will be surely missed.

Dick Nininger, colleagues and Good Neighbor friends mourn the passing of Walter Bernard. A sharecropper’s son, he was a man of culture,a creature of humble piety and soaring spirit, a story teller, a wit, a librarian and man of wisdom.  

Bob Ohlerking, a friend and neighbor remembers Walter as a friendly, sociable, genteel man of the South. "He would greet neighbors and passers-by with a great smile and a happy expression.  If you stopped to chat he would tell you of his day or his childhood in North Carolina. His conversations with you would be peppered with quotations from the Bible studies from his early life as a son of sharecroppers or with quotations from the early Roman philosophers from his studies and work at Columbia University.   One always left encounters with him happier and enlightened."

Good Neighbors of Park Slope mourns the loss of our member David Leveson, who passed away at home on March 15th, at the age of 84. David was a unique individual, admired and loved by friends, colleagues, and students who collectively attended his standing-room only memorial service at our local Ethical Culture building in April.

Some people are smart, some are nice, some are fun to be with, -- David was all of these. His career as a geology professor at Brooklyn College spanned half a century, combining research, development of on-line courses, and teaching. He was beloved by his students, this writer among them, and admired by his fellow faculty members.

David was passionate about teaching, and assiduously avoided the departmental chairmanship, despite his seniority, in order to maintain contact with his students. His devotion to teaching is indirectly illustrated by a few quotes from the "Rate My Professor" web site:

      Guy's awesome, really cool Brit, …

      Brilliant! A wonderful prof. who really knows how to teach.

Very nice man, he is one of the best profs. in the Geo department. He really knows how to teach and make everything easy to understand. GREAT Professor. A MUST take!!

Open minded and sincere, when he is wrong unlike most of his colleagues he recognizes that he was wrong!!!! When he doesn't know the answer he doesn't try to baffle you with outlandish stuff, instead he does say that he doesn't know the answer, and he investigates it with you! GREAT SCHOLAR.

He is so old! I feel sorry that he's still teaching. Nice man.

David was an accomplished photographer and author. In 1972 his first book "A Sense of the Earth”, published in 1971, was nominated for a National Book Award and is still in print today. Upon his retirement from Brooklyn College in 2007 he and his wife Meg joined a group of artists to found The Longyear Gallery, located in Margaretville, NY, a mile from their beloved Weedwild country home, where he and Meg enjoyed over four decades of rural retreat, along with their cats, their daughter Bessie, and numerous guests. A special thrill was being with Bessie and Will’s adorable daughter Annabelle.

David continued to write and, upon his death, had completed two books, one of which was a partly fictionalized memoir he had been working on for over 50 years. 

He will continue to be deeply missed by all who knew him.

Arnold Wendroff

Good Neighbors of Park Slope mourns the passing of its member Tom Hanks. Tom was married

for over 50 years to our friend and neighbor Sheila Hanks. He lived on 10th Street between 6th

and 7th Avenues for over 40 years, and exemplified what it meant to be a Good Neighbor. Upon

joining Good Neighbors Tom and Sheila were happy to re-connect with members that they knew

from their earliest days in Park Slope.

Tom had survived a serious illness in 2010 and resumed his active life in the community,

including enjoying five years of working out at the Cross Fit Gym. A very important part of his life

was his 30-year plus involvement in the Prayer Ministry at Brooklyn Tabernacle. The service

there in celebration of his life was attended by more than 400 congregation members. Tom and

Sheila’s daughter Amanda gave an extemperaneous and moving eulogy to her beloved Dad.

As a long time-friend of the Hanks family I can say that I never saw Tom when he did not have a

warm smile and sincere greeting and interest in what was going on. He will be very missed; we

know that Sheila will find strength and support in her family, her friends, her block neighbors,

and GNPS hopes that she knows that our groups and activities are there to help.

Tom is survived by Sheila, Amanda and his much

Alice and I met several years ago when I cast her daughter, Zoe, in a production of Chekhov's Three Sisters. Alice, a devoted mother-and a lovingly typical stage mother--attended every rehearsal. She began to come to my play readings and was a really good actress. When she became ill, she would come to my Nia classes full of enthusiasm despite her condition. She gave me strength as I witnessed her bravery and fortitude in dealing with her illness. She was such a trip at our weekly beginner poker games. I never saw anyone lose so cheerfully--and so consistently. Alice loved attending various Good Neighbors activities and tried to participate in as much as she could - Book Clubs, Scrabble, Canasta, folk singing. I feel so privileged to have known her. She was a ray of light in my life. She was artist, friend and companion on The Great Peace March. 

James Williams

Click here to see full Park Slope Coop obit.

The Good Neighbors of Park Slope deeply mourn the passing of Edith Brafman. A kind and loving person, she was generous to the poor and hungry, routinely sent contributions to more than fifty different organizations and gave freely of herself to help friends, relatives and strangers alike; for more than a dozen years she has been helping to care for her disabled sister and her sister’s three sons. Her joy for life and her love for her children, her grandchildren and her husband knew no boundaries. A humble, yet energetic person, she was modest in all her ways.

At GNPS, she was an important part of three of our book clubs, and our poetry group. She was an avid reader and loved to share her insights into what she had read. She generously offered to host groups in her home, and would prepare a delicious array of snacks for those who attended. She always had a thousand plans for the future, was enthusiastic about everything that she did, and her enthusiasm was as infectious as her warm and loving sense of humor and the joyous smile with which she greeted every person she met.

We will all miss her thoughtfulness and generous spirit.

Allen Brafman

Joyce Jed - Classical Fiction Book Club

Margaret Kelly - Contemporary Fiction Book Club

Nancy Richardson - Non-Fiction Book Club

Bonnie Billet - Poetry Group

NO PICTURE PROVIDED

Len Fox, one of the original members of our folk singing group, has passed away after a long battle with cancer. Len helped launch our Good Neighbors folk singing group and showed up faithfully with his guitar in tow each month. In so many ways, Len was a generous soul. You may have noticed “LF” on the cover of several of our songbooks. Those were donated by Len along with the bag of percussion instruments that appear at each folk singing meeting so everyone could participate and enjoy themselves. 

Len Fox will be missed. May he rest in peace.

Sandy Haber

The Board of Directors of GNPS

mourns the passing of our 

dear friend and supporter.