Marjorie CANTOR

CANTOR--Marjorie (Hoffman), 88 died peacefully on October 31st, 2009 in New York City. She is survived by her daughter Nancy and Nancy's husband Steve (Brechin), her son Richard and his wife Andrea (Lilienthal), her four beloved grandchildren Maddy, Archie, Andrew and Eliza, her sister, Muriel Brotsky and her sister-in-law, Ruth Bernstein. A lifelong New Yorker, a graduate of Hunter College and Columbia University Teachers College, Marjorie worked passionately and tirelessly to understand and aid individuals and organizations for whom she cared deeply. Beginning with her work with migrant farm workers in upstate New York, she continued doing pioneering research for diverse groups such as The Girl Scouts of America and Vista. Marjorie found her true calling during Mayor John Lindsay's administration as Director of Research and Evaluation of the New York City department for the Aging, where she was the principal investigator of the 1970 landmark cross-ethnic study "The Elderly in the Inner City of New York", as well as nine other large scale studies during her 40 years in the field of aging. A past president of the Gerontological Society of America, she was a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the field of aging. At her death, Marjorie was an Emeritus Professor and Brookdale Distinguished Scholar of the Graduate School of Social Service of Fordham University, where she had been Associate Director of the University's Third Age Center and Scholar in Residence at the Lighthouse International. Her most recent work with ACRIA, directly a groundbreaking study of older adults with HIV in New York City, continued her lifelong commitment to illuminating the lives of those she felt underrepresented in our society. As the author of more then seventy-five publications, Marjorie served as a consultant to numerous Federal, State and local agencies and boards, including the Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York and Elder Share the Arts. She participated in both the 1980 and 1995 White House Conference on Aging, The International Forum on Aging in Beijing and gave the keynote address on the Symposium on the Jewish Family at the First World Conference on Jewish Services for the Elderly in Jerusalem. She will be deeply missed by her family, for whom she served as a loving beacon and exemplar to her friends and by her colleagues in the field of aging. Please join us for a memorial service celebrating her life and work on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 3:00pm at Frank E. Campbell, 1076 Madison Ave. at 81st Street.