General Information
Full Name: Yevgeny “Eugene” Zilberman
Date of Death: Saturday, October 14th, 2023
Yevgeny Zilberman, better known as Eugene, papa, and deda, passed away on October 14th from an aggressive brain tumor. Born November 16, 1948 in the USSR to the late Sima Umanskaya and Leonid Zilberman, he served in the army after graduating high school. He had a brilliant mind, graduating college with an electrical engineering degree despite severe antisemitism against jewish students back in the USSR at that time. He resided in Kiev and lived through Chernobyl, when he built his own geiger counter to measure the radiation around him to protect his family. As a result of the explosion, coupled with antisemitism and communism, he took his family and began the 2.5 month immigration process in 1988, finally arriving in Brooklyn on February 28, 1989. He taught himself English and computer programming, and after climbing the ladder in several jobs, was able to buy a house in Fair Lawn, NJ, where he resided until his death. He worked at the prestigious Lucent Technologies for 10 years and then continued his career at Harris for the next 20 years until his passing.
He is survived by his loving wife, Maya Tsomik, two daughters, and sons-in-law, Irina and Joe Yurgelonis and Viktoriya and Adam Winters, and 5 grandchildren, Rebecca, Emma, Benjamin, Caitlin and Nathan. He loved his family the most, followed by boxing, ping pong, tennis, skiing and traveling the world with his family.
Funeral services will be held at 12 noon on October 15th, at Louis Suburban Chapel, 13-01 Broadway, Fair Lawn, NJ, followed by internment at Riverside Cemetery, 12 Market St, Saddle Brook, NJ.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to St. Judes Children’s Hospital.
Service Information
Sunday. October 15th, 2023
12:00PM
Service at:
Louis Suburban Chapel
13-01 Broadway, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410
If you are using GPS you can input the intersection of Cyril Ave & St Anne Street. The construction taking place on Broadway will hinder you from accessing Cyril Ave from the main road. You will see a sign that says “No Thru Traffic” on Cyril Ave & St Anne Street but you can drive past it to access the parking lot of the funeral home.
Burial at:
Riverside Cemetery
12 Market St, Saddle Brook, NJ 07663
Eugene and I only worked together for a few years at L3Harris, but he served as an invaluable mentor despite the short time. He helped me adjust to the new job and answered all my questions. He was also very kind and would crack jokes to ease the tension when projects got rough.
Eugene had a strong personality, and I often heard him from a few cubes over, passionately arguing engineering topics with other colleagues. The discussions may have been long and hard-fought, but they were never cruel or stubborn. Instead, the talks were directed at getting down to the most productive and best possible solution for the issue of the day, despite how heated things got. And that was Eugene, as far as I could tell. He always strived for the best out of his teammates and of himself and wasn’t afraid to express himself to get there. And in the end, he was pretty much always right, too.
I was deeply saddened to hear of his brain condition and even more so of his eventual passing. He was a real trooper, and despite all that he had been through, he still wanted to return to work and throw himself back into some of the most vigorous engineering projects.
Death is one of the most difficult things for anyone to deal with, and I know mere words cannot rectify that or bring him back. But I do know one thing. Even if Eugene is no longer with us, a part of his personality and devotion to excellence in engineering will always live on in all the people he helped mentor or teach.
Rest in peace.