Jeffrey H. Kaimowitz

Jeffrey Hugh Kaimowitz, 78, of West Hartford, CT, passed away on November 9, 2020 at home with his immediate family. He was the son of William Louis Kaimowitz and Ruth Sarah Kaimowitz (nee Greenfield). Jeffrey's father co-owned a construction and development company started by his grandfather, a Polish-Jewish immigrant. Jeffrey grew up and attended schools in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Jeffrey earned a BA from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. At both, he majored in Classical languages, Latin and Greek, and studied under some of the best known and important Classicists and archaeologists of the time. He excelled academically, was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa, won a Fulbright Fellowship, and won a prestigious Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. He also spent a year in Greece at the American School for Classical Studies. Jeffrey taught Latin for several years at Miami University in Ohio and later at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Although he loved to teach, he hated having to grade his students, judging them, so he obtained a position in the Spencer rare book and manuscript collection at the New York Public Library. His language background, including a reading knowledge of many European languages, was exceptionally useful in a rare book library. He loved the world of rare books and enjoyed sharing his knowledge through various articles, still used by scholars, about items in the Spencer collection. While at the NYPL, Jeff earned a Master of Library Science degree at Columbia. After earning his MLS, Jeffrey was hired as Curator of the Watkinson Library, the rare book and scholarly research library of Trinity College, where he stayed until retirement 32 years later. There, Jeff thought very deeply about the purpose of the library and its collections, and developed plans to make it stronger and more comprehensive. Because the library was intended to enrich student learning first and foremost, he constantly searched for manuscript collections that would offer the students rich, fresh fields for their own research. He also thought about and built up book holdings that rounded out topics that needed more depth or began topical collections that would offer reference material for modern scholarly concerns. As he built the library, he also shared the library. He reached out to faculty to introduce them to the library's collection and thereby greatly increased the number of classes that were taught in the library, supporting a wide variety of topics. He invited in outside speakers for programs that were open to students and the general public alike. He created exhibitions of library holdings that demonstrated how the books told stories about important topics in history, such as Renaissance religious movements or South American revolutions, and wrote catalogs that became reference works for library users. Sharing the riches of the Watkinson with the public was an important activity for Jeff. Jeffrey also was productive in his off hours, notably through his translation of the Odes of Horace. He created a highly praised translation that captured the meter and emotional experience of the odes while also using his own poetic skills to capture their beautiful language. His book was published by the Johns Hopkins Press, in hardback and soft cover. Jeff was an extremely learned man, always reading widely in history, art, and world cultures, including Jewish history and culture. He read Latin and Greek over breakfast every morning, except for Saturdays when he read the Bible in Hebrew. He studied and read Classical literature with several friends. He was very active as well and loved nature, hiking in parks throughout the U.S. and many other countries with his family and friends. He and his wife Llyn shared many other hobbies, including book design and printing on their home printing press, music from the Middle Ages to modern orchestral music, with subscriptions to the Hartford Symphony and the Hartt Chamber Series, and reading together out-loud. In the past year, he and his wife read Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, a work of incredible power and humanity. He greatly loved travel, especially planning trips that allowed him to go off the beaten path and get to know people of other cultures. He visited many countries around the world and most of the United States. Jeffrey was extremely humane, charitable, good-natured, and ethical. He dearly loved his family and was very good to them. He leaves behind his wife Llyn Kaimowitz, his son Simon Kaimowitz of West Hartford, CT, his sister Carol Kaimowitz of NYC and Essex, CT, and his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Ralph and Francene Conrad or Norton, Ohio, all of whom loved him very much. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Kaimowitz Family Fund at The Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford, CT, 06117 or to the New Israel Fund, www.nif.org. Arrangements are entrusted to Weinstein Mortuary, Hartford, CT. For further information, directions, or to sign the guest book for Jeffrey Kaimowitz, please visit online at www.weinsteinmortuary.com/funerals.cfm.