LAWRENCE KATZMAN

KATZMAN--Lawrence.

Larry Katzman, a widely published cartoonist, successful businessman, avid skier and world traveler, died on March 26th at 93. Born Alvin Lawrence Katzman to Max Katzman and the former Lillian Goldfarb, he grew up in Utica, NY and Brooklyn. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Electrical Engineering, he served in Germany with the US Army Signal Corps in the 3118th Service Group. In 1955, he married Shirley Potash, who predeceased him in 2006; he is survived by his children, Richard (Jane), John (Alicia), and Julie (Simon); six grandchildren, Perri, Tom, Daniel, Lyra, Ben and Sophie; and his partner Claudia Zipkin. Larry worked with his father and later with his son Richard to grow the Kaz Manufacturing Company from a start-up created to sell Max's invention, the electric vaporizer, into a $500 million global consumer appliances company. Larry also served on the boards of The World Presidents Organization and a number of business organizations. But his passion was cartooning; his work, signed "Kaz," and his nurse character, Nellie Nifty, RN, appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire and other magazines and newspapers in 21 countries, and his book collections and greeting cards sold over three million copies. He was awarded the Palma d'Oro, the highest prize in international cartooning. Larry was a longtime director and officer of the National Cartoonists Society and its charity arm, The Milt Gross Fund, and was awarded the Silver T-Square and Gold Key/Hall of Fame Awards for service to the organization. Larry also set up kazfun.com with weekly cartoons and his HeadLines and other acrostic-type puzzles, and rooted with little success for the New York Jets.