HOWARD B. ESKIN

1934 - 2017

ESKIN
HOWARD B.

No Ordinary Life: Renaissance Man, avid Bird Photographer, self-proclaimed curmudgeon and raconteur, Howard B. Eskin, age 82, died peacefully at home in the early morning hours of Friday, February 24, 2017. Born in New York City on December 26, 1934 to Samuel and Berenice (Fleischer) Eskin, he spent his formative years on the shores of Long Island (Jones Beach) and attended schools in Freeport and Baldwin. Howard studied History, Mathematics and Engineering at the University of Rochester, and then continued his studies in Business, Education and Ornithology at Cornell and Princeton. Serving in the US Army as a language instructor in Kaiserslautern, Germany, he met the "most beautiful girl" he had ever seen, Rosemarie, before he was honorably dis-charged in 1958.
He had a distinguished career in industry and business. High-lights include: working as an engineer on Hamilton Standard design team that built life support systems for NASA, working for Wall Street's F.I. DuPont as a Limited Partner and then joining Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) in 1975. During his tenure with ADP, he was a GM and Division VP and his many recognitions included receiving the President's Club award more than 25 times. He was a leader in developing innovative solutions for improving client service and was excellent at selecting and developing leaders for the company, many of whom attained senior level positions. Howard was an out-standing fly fisherman and fly tier, with photos of his flies published in several books including Brook Trout by Nick Karas. Fly-fishing and fly-tying were passions he shared with his son Steven, son-in-law Robert, and many others with whom he shared his time, equipment, flies, and teaching. Howard's passion for fly-fishing allowed him to visit some of the world's most pristine land-scapes including New Zealand and Russia. These vistas would prove to be the muse for Howard's love of photography. There wasn't a place Howard would go that he didn't have a camera in hand. The "designated photographer" at every event, he was extremely generous, offering photos, posters, CDs and access to his website to literally everyone he met. Recently, he started mentoring his daughter, Evi, in her pursuit of photography. Howard's engage-ment with all photography grew into a passion for bird photography. He shared this passion with his grandson, Sam, who he took numerous times birding and was teaching how to spot and identify birds. An award-winning photographer, his photographs can be seen on almost every bird website and in numerous magazines and books. Besides photographing birds, he worked closely with conservationists to help monitor and band protected raptors.
Having a love of the Arts, he was instrumental in recognizing and promoting the talents of a young painter, Joseph Reboli (1945-2004). The Reboli Center will be showing Howard's photographs in August 2017. While supporting his daughter, Lisa, with her participation in theater, Howard, himself, went on stage playing a King, a Priest and a songster in a holiday revue show. A prolific writer and wordsmith, Howard wrote poems and illustrated them with his photographs. In 2004, Lisa wrote and directed a play, Winter Solstice, based on his poetry and photography which was performed to sold-out audiences and received The Phila-delphia Inquirer's Best Bets.
An authority on Dalton pottery, mushrooms, and many other (continued)