General Information
Full Name: Sol Goldberg
Date of Death: Sunday, January 6, 2019
Service Information
When: A memorial service will be held on January 20, 2019 at 1:30 pm All are welcome
Location: Unitarian Universalist Society
Address: 113 Cottage Pl, Ridgewood, NJ 07450.
Sol Goldberg was born in New York, New York June 6, 1926 to Esther Streichler Goldberg and Alter Goldberg. After 64 years residing in Glen Rock, NJ he died in Wayne, NJ on January 6, 2019 due to complications of Parkinson’s. He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Barbara Ann (Withers); three children, Stephen, Susan Sherman and David (M.J. King), three grandchildren and their spouses (Scott Sherman, Matt Sherman, Toni Goldberg, Kirsten Prevost and Laura Sherman) and a great-grandchild, Gannon Sherman. He will be fondly remembered by his sister-in-law, Ruth Heybrock, and his niece, Terri Henderson.
Sol was the youngest of five siblings, one of whom did not survive childhood and all of whom have predeceased him.
He grew up in the Bronx and attended Yeshiva as well as public school, singing in the choir at temple. At age 11, he contracted rheumatic fever and received treatment at home, missing a year of school. As a consequence of his illness, he was invited to attend NYC Fresh Air Camps. Other activities of childhood included ceramics and public speaking at the Madison Street Settlement House and hard-earned summer vacations in the Catskills with his family.
Sol had to drop out of school in his junior year to support his parents. He entered the apparel industry, earning his GED later. His lifelong employer, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, sent him early in his career to the Harvard Trade Union Program, a program of Harvard Business School, where he was trained in collective bargaining skills. His career as a labor organizer took him to Bristol and Roanoke, Virginia; Newburgh, New York; NYC; and finally, New Jersey, where he retired as a Vice President of the ILGWU.
Sol met Barbara at the ILGWU. He cracked jokes with her over the phone, and she was smitten. They married in 1949 and the children soon followed. Because their families had different religious backgrounds, Sol and Barbara made the decision to raise their children in the Unitarian Church. They were members of the Newburgh, NY church and have attended the Ridgewood society since 1964.
Outside of his professional life of labor union activism and liberal political campaigning, Sol had a life of social action and intellectual engagement. Among his activities at the Unitarian Church was picking up day-old bread at King’s supermarket and delivering it to local food banks and CAMP. He was a long time member of the Men’s Group at the Church as well as two book groups, and served on the Board of William Paterson College.
Sol had a passion for jazz, the Saturday afternoon opera, concerts at the New Jersey Symphony, and travel with Elderhostel and friends, in spite of lifelong debilitating back pain.
From ceramics at the Settlement House to sculpting in clay and painting in the 1960’s, then bread-baking in the 1970’s, Sol’s expression as an artist culminated in his wood carving. The work of African and Pacific Northwestern indigenous peoples were his inspiration. Ultimately, their garden was full of wooden statuary, many near six feet in height, and the house full of figures, plaques, and masks. His walking sticks have been sold every year at the church craft show. Sol’s respect and appreciation for wood was transmitted to each of his grandchildren as lessons learned in his workshop.
A memorial service will be held on January 20, 2019 at 1:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Society 113 Cottage Pl, Ridgewood, NJ 07450. All are welcome.
Those who so desire may make memorial donations in memory of Sol to the C.A.M.P Youth Development Corp. at 13-15 North 1st Street Paterson, NJ 07522 or the Alzheimer’s Association. https
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