Edith Zwick Shufro Evans

Edith Zwick Evans (formerly Edith Shufro) died on March 22, 2025. She was 99. Edie passed away peacefully at home in Hamden, Connecticut, with family at her side.

Edie was born into a Jewish family in Vienna on August 17, 1925, the youngest child of Frieda (née Uri) and Moses Zwick. When Moses married into the Uri family, he became a partner in Uri & Zwick, a clothing manufacturer.

Edie grew up in the city's largely Jewish Second District in a family-owned apartment building overlooking the Danube Canal. She excelled as a student until anti-Jewish fervor shut down her school when she was 12. Then in spring 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria. Jews feared for their lives. Moses was arrested and sent to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. The Zwick family began to fracture.

Thanks to a maternal uncle in England, Edie was able to escape Vienna in 1939 on a Kindertransport train to The Netherlands; she would grieve her whole life that, amidst the confusion on the train platform, she did not say goodbye to her mother. From Rotterdam, Edie traveled to England and was placed with a family in Sunderland. Later she moved to a local hostel and learned shorthand and typing to support herself.

Meanwhile, Moses had been allowed to leave Dachau after he arranged for a British visa. Edie saw him briefly a couple of times in London. In 1940, however, he was interned as an "enemy alien" on the Isle of Man. He was released from the camp when he became ill, and he died of cancer in 1941.

Edie later moved to London. After some time, her older brother, Paul, managed to find a sponsor for her in the United States. Despite the danger, she crossed the Atlantic on an empty troop ship in November 1944. Edie joined Paul and his wife Dina in Marion, Virginia, where Paul worked as a hospital psychiatrist.

Hospital co-workers who were conscientious objectors helped Paul find a secretarial job for Edie in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Her employer, Arthur E. Morgan, was the former president of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, ex-director of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Antioch later offered Edie a scholarship to attend the college. Despite having learned English mostly on her own, she placed out of Antioch's first-year English requirement. She graduated in 1949 and moved to New York City to study social work at Columbia University. After completing her master's degree, Edie found a job in the city.

A college friend, Ellen Shufro, introduced Edie to her older brother, Arnold Dan Shufro. Arnie was a fellow Antioch alumnus and a textile salesman in New York. The two married in August 1950, and children Cathy and Mark were born in Manhattan. The family moved to Westport, Connecticut, and daughter Carol was born in Connecticut.

While raising the children, Edie attended French club luncheons with Westport friends, and she studied sculpture with Stanley Bleifeld, a member of the National Academy of Design. In the late 1960s, Edie returned to part-time social work at High Meadows School in Hamden, Connecticut.

She and Arnie eventually divorced, and Edie married a former High Meadows administrator, Robert Lee Evans. She and Bob bought and ran the Sedgwick Inn and restaurant in Berlin, New York. They became popular innkeepers.

After Bob's death from cancer in 1991, Edie continued running the inn and a nearby antiques store until 1999, when she sold the businesses. She moved full time to nearby Williamstown, Massachusetts. There, she belonged to a tight-knit circle of friends who enjoyed the rich cultural life provided by Williams College, The Clark Art Institute, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She traveled to destinations including Egypt, India, and Japan.

Edie spent her final decade at the Whitney Center in Hamden, Connecticut, near her daughter Cathy. At the Whitney Center, she became known for her sense of humor and her lively participation at the French and bridge tables. Her sculptures were included in numerous residents' art exhibitions. Through a profile published in the community newsletter, fellow residents came to know her history.

Edie's siblings - Paul and sisters Fanni and Blanche - all died before her: Fanni died with their mother, Frieda, in the Nazi death camp in Treblinka in 1944; Paul and Blanche died from natural causes. Edie's son, Mark Bernard Shufro, died from a chronic illness in 2022.

Edie is survived by daughters Cathy Fran Shufro and Carol Ruth Shufro, and by Lisa Kerpen Shufro, Mark's widow; by grandchildren Benjamin Adam Mandelkern (Sophia Ann Shackleton); Paul Frederick Shufro (Lydia Melamed Johnson), Matthew Aaron Mandelkern (Raphael Turcotte), Jacob Shufro; Hannah Libby Shufro (Roberto Aram Ferdman); and Sophie Carolyn Shufro; by two great grandchildren, Petra Maren Johnson-Shufro and Tala Malu Ferdman; and by nieces and nephews and their progeny.