Sidney Furie

1920 - 2017

October 1, 1920 - May 16, 2017 Sidney Furie, 96, of Riverside, Connecticut passed away peacefully at home on May 16, 2017. He was born in Newark, New Jersey on October 1, 1920. He was the third living child of Pauline Dubowsky Furie and Louis Furie. He spent his childhood living in The Great Depression and was never used to having material luxuries. He and his brother, who would later become a dentist, sold Good Humors from bicycle trucks to earn money when they were teenagers. He later became a lifeguard on the Jersey Shore, towing a wooden row boat behind him for a mile as he swam to pass the test for his job. He was active in many clubs in high school, including the drama club, glee club, and the debating club. He also played the clarinet. When he graduated from South Side High School in Newark, New Jersey in 1938 at the age of 17 he received a scholarship to Columbia College. He became active in liberal politics on the Columbia campus where he met his soulmate, Helen Mary Onofrey of Stratford, Connecticut. They were married two weeks after he turned 21, on October 18, 1941. On December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States entered World War II. Sidney graduated from Columbia in January of 1942 and enlisted in the United States Army, joining the Signal Corps. During the war he served in England and France, seeing the buzz bombing of London and the Liberation of Paris. He was demobilized in 1946. He then enrolled in the Columbia University Graduate School of Social Work and earned his MS in Social Work in 1948. In his early years as a social worker, Sidney worked at The Community Service Society in New York City where all the supervising psychiatrists had been trained at The New York Psychoanalytic Institute. He was psychoanalyzed as a routine part of his training as a social worker because in that era clinical social work was strongly influenced by Sigmund Freud. Sidney used his deep insights into human nature derived during these early years of training throughout his long career. He went on to work at many other jobs in his very long career as a social worker. His career spanned clinical social work; community organization; and education. He was a Professor of Social Work at The New York University School of Social Work and The Fordham University School of Social Services. He was the Program Director for The Puerto Rican Family Institute. He ran a program for all seven New York social work schools on The Lower East Side of Manhattan helping to train Vista volunteers in a program called Mobilization For Youth in the 1960's. He worked for the Family Court System in New York. He worked for The Institute for the Crippled and Disabled. He was the first Mental Health Coordinator for The Town of Greenwich, which had a pilot program for the State of Connecticut to facilitate the transition of deinstitutionalized mental patients from psychiatric hospitals into the community. After he retired from The Town of Greenwich he served as Clinical Director for Pathways, the Greenwich organization which helps the mentally ill. Sid was an avid exerciser. For many years he bicycled ten miles a day around Greenwich Point. Later he switched to walking briskly four miles a day. Finally, he did an hour of aerobic exercise in the pool at the Greenwich YMCA seven days a week. In 1994 he was featured in a "Greenwich" magazine article about the Y because he was an inspiration to other people there. In addition to exercise, Sid loved classical music. In his later years his passion was for string quartets. He was also an avid reader, right to the end of his life. He read "The New York Times" daily and kept abreast of foreign affairs and politics. He also enjoyed mysteries and detective stories. His major concern in life was for the less fortunate and the suffering of the world. When he saw a photo of refugees on the front page of "The New York Times" he would cry out and say, "Those poor people! It's unbearable!" His heart broke for injustice against minorities, defenseless mentally ill people, and anyone else who was suffering and unable to defend himself. He never ran out of compassion. He was also a wonderful husband, father, and grandfather. He is survived by a daughter and son-in- law, Deborah Furie Gabbai and Donald Gabbai; a son and daughter-in-law, David John Furie and Kathleen Sorbo Furie; three granddaughters, Amanda Furie Ndaw; Sarah Elizabeth Furie; and Whitney Katrina Gabbai and a grandson by marriage, Aziz Ndaw, as well as by his sister-in-law, Dorothy Eva Franklin, Marian Sorbo, and many nieces and nephews. The family wishes to thank all that cared for him with so much love during his last few months, especially Derrick Perkins and Nancy Caruso. Funeral arrangements will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Pathways, Inc. 175 Milbank Ave., Greenwich, CT 06830 or to The Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Washington Ave. Montgomery, AL 36104.