Charlotte Barack Kutchai

Charlotte Barack Kutchai

Charlotte Barack Kutchai, 88, died peacefully at the Colonnades Health Center early on Friday, December 18, 2009.

Mrs. Kutchai was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 7, 1921, to Harry Barack and Belle Rosen Barack.

She married Jacob "Jake" Herman Kutchai on May 24, 1941. The couple resided for much of their married life in Detroit and in several suburbs of Detroit, where Charlotte and Jake were founding members Temple Emanuel in Oak Park, Michigan. Charlotte worked for many years with an accounting firm in Detroit. Charlotte was a devoted wife to Jake and a loving mother to Howard. Charlotte succeeded in modulating the overprotective tendencies of a Jewish mother, so that her only child was blessed with a full and satisfying childhood.

Somewhat later Charlotte and Jake resided briefly in the Cleveland area and then for a longer period in the Pittsburgh area, where she served as the accountant for a small construction supplies company that she and Jake founded. They lived in Moon Township and were active in the Beth Samuel Jewish Center in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, where Charlotte kept the books for the synagogue and helped to manage its endowment. Jake died in 1993. Charlotte moved to Charlottesville in 2000, where she resided first at Branchlands and then in the Colonnades Nursing Center.

Charlotte Kutchai is survived by her son, Howard and his wife, Elizabeth, of Charlottesville; a grandson, Joshua Kutchai of Montclair, New Jersey; a sister, Doris Goldman of Camarillo, California; and by three nieces and four nephews.

The family is grateful for the skilled and kind care Mrs. Kutchai received from the staff of the Colonnades Nursing Center, Hospice of the Piedmont, and Dr. John Gazewood.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.