Arthur Salcman

Old Saybrook - He was not an ordinary man. Born in Posa almost 100 years ago on June 10, 1911, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but after the First World War a small town in Czechoslovakia, he grew up in farm country, in a family of deep religious faith and mathematical gifts. He might have been a rabbinic scholar but studied mechanical engineering instead, spoke seven languages fluently and joined the Czech Army as a gifted horseman. Eventually he became the leading engineer at the Skoda Works, Central Europe's most important heavy machinery plant. When the Second World War broke out, he joined the Resistance, and twice escaped from temporary imprisonment, running from East to West in a desperate attempt to hide his true identity.

He spent the war years as MiklosRosza, "Michael the Red". Almost 70 immediate relatives died in the Holocaust, including both of his parents, Regina (Wintner) and Moshe Salzmann, and, of seven brothers and sisters, all but one brother and one sister; all five of his brothers-in-law also perished.

Mr. Salcman was married to two extraordinary women. After the war he met his first wife, Edith Atlas, when he returned to her mother's mansion, the house in which he had previously dated the maid before the war and together had wheeled the child Edith in the near-by park. They married and had a son, Michael, before immigrating to America in 1949.

Once again Mr. Salcman began at the bottom as a toiling laborer but eventually became the chief engineer of the food processing division of American Machine and Foundry Company (AMF) and moved from New York to Old Saybrook when the company relocated in 1962.

He became known as "Mr. Lowerator" for inventing and perfecting the three-pronged dish-dispensing machines seen in many restaurants and cafeterias. Edith eventually served as the town library's first children's librarian; she suddenly died in 1973 while giving a public address.

In 1976, Mr. Salcman married Lilly Salamon, the widow of Alexander Salamon, a physician in Seaman, Ohio, and herself a survivor of Auschwitz, who had two daughters, Suzanne and Julie. Somewhat miraculously, the man who had lost almost an entire family in the Holocaust now became the paterfamilias of a new extended family, all of whom deeply mourn his passing: Michael and Ilene Salcman's children, Joshua and Dara, Suzanne Salamon and Alan Einhorn's children, Alexandra and David, and Roxie and Eli, the children of Julie Salamon and Bill Abrams, not to mention his beloved great-granddaughter, Olivia, the child of Joshua and Jennifer Salcman.

Arthur and Lilly Salcman were very involved in Jewish causes including the Holocaust Museum in Tampa, Fla., the Weitzmann Institute in Israel, and proud to record their wartime remembrances for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Project. In their spare time they were avid golfers, having each shot a hole-in-one as seniors and playing the game well into Mr. Salcman's 98th year. They maintained homes in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Old Saybrook. Mr. Salcman died on Sept. 23, 2010.

A graveside service will be held at 12 noon on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010, at Beth-El Cemetery, Lestertown Road, Groton.

Thomas L. Neilan & Sons Funeral Home, 12 Ocean Ave., New London, is assisting the family with arrangements.

For directions, obituary information, or to sign the family's register book, please visit www.neilanfuneralhome.com.