Arnold "Arny" Galpern

Arnold A. Galpern: A Life Well Lived
Arny Galpern's life came to a close on September 24, 2025. He was 94.
Born to Nathan and Olgya, he is survived by Lois Galpern, his loving wife of 71 years, his sons Daniel and Michael, their wives Debbi and Helene, and four grandchildren, David, Joseph, Joshua, and Sarah.
Arny grew up in Queens and Jersey City, graduated from Bronx Science High School, and attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. While in Rhode Island, he met Lois Salk, a co-ed at the University of Rhode Island. Arny and Lois married 5 years later on January 31, 1954.
The couple lived in the Bronx for several years, before moving with their two young sons to Highland Park, New Jersey. Arny worked for Revlon, Inc. for more than three decades while Lois taught elementary school. Often, Arny would bicycle the 3.9 miles from their home to work.
Arny loved nature and introduced his family to it through camping adventures – a few times in the Pine Barrens, but most often in the Islands of Lake George in the Adirondacks north of Albany. Their favorite campsites included those on Coopers, Saint Sacrament, and Sagamore Islands.
Arny would lead the way in loading the family into a VW minivan, with a rowboat and canoe on top, an outboard 5-horsepower engine in the back, heavy canvas tents, a 150-pound Newfoundland dog named Homer, and an orange tabby cat named Pumpkin. The kids and animals essentially were stuffed amongst camping gear for the 250-mile road trip. Money was tight, but camping was reasonably affordable and campsites reasonably accessible back then. The rowboat, fully loaded, often had mere inches of freeboard, and navigating 3 miles of open water, sometimes fighting high winds, trailing the equally fully loaded canoe, took significant skill. Arny learned and taught the kids how to pitch a tent, hang a hammock, row a boat, paddle a canoe, use a compass, and most importantly, wash dirty towels in a bucket.
Nonetheless, Arny's swimming skills were amazingly bad. The 32-mile-long Lake George, was crystal clear back then and brimming with fish – but Arny would not get into it unless bearing a facemask, snorkel, fins, and a floating canoe cushion. Lois, on the other hand, was a champion swimmer. Accordingly, Arny lovingly nicknamed her Otto, short for Otter, but the number of their loving nicknames during their 71 years of marriage could fill many additional pages.
Arny served his community. When the family lived in Highland Park, he served as Chair of the Borough's shade tree commission. At Lions Gate he served on the environment committee and the Yiddish education program.
Arny and Lois moved to Lions Gate six years ago, just months before the Covid 19 crisis. They participated in virtually all of the Lions Gate's offerings as their health allowed.
Arny and Lois' youngest son, Michael Galpern, an attorney whose office is in Voorhees, was fortunate to be located directly across from Arny and Lois' apartment, allowing him many opportunities to pop over for lunch and spend time visiting with them.
Mike here adds his personally reflection:
"To say Arny was a special person is perhaps the greatest understatement imaginable. In addition to having a loving wife of 71 years, he was the most devoted father and grandfather on the planet. He did not simply love his children and grandchildren; he was obsessed with them. He served as a surrogate father to my wife Helene who lost her father way too young. He was the grandfather to my step-daughter who never got to meet her biological grandfather. Arny would happily spend every waking moment with his four biological grandkids,
"As an attorney, I never had to research what was ethical and proper; I would simply call my father, a non-lawyer, and he had the answer at his fingertips. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of opera, classical music, history, birding, geography and human relations. He never had to act like the smartest person in the room; he quietly earned that title in every social setting. He taught me how to cook, throw a football, play chess, build a campfire, sail and most importantly be a husband and father. Arny was the first person to lend a hand to any neighbor in every place he lived. My father never cared for fancy cars or luxury homes; it was much more important to him to whom you offered a ride or who you invited in your home. Our world really needs more people like him."
Arny and Lois' older son Dan is an attorney and advocate in practice in Eugene, Oregon, where he also serves as executive director of Climate Protection and Restoration Initiative, a non-profit group. His own brief tribute to his father's commitment to humanity and nature, In Honor of My Father, can be found at https://cprclimate.org/in-honor-of-my-father/.
Services will be held at Bradley Funeral Home, 601 Rt 73 South and Evesham Rd, Marlton NJ 08053 on Monday, September 29, with a receiving line starting 10:00am and the formal service at 11:00am. This will be followed by a graveside service at Locustwood Memorial Park, Rte. 70 Cherry Hill NJ. SHIVA will be held at Mike and Helene Galpern's house, 23 Chatham Drive, Voorhees, NJ 08043, on Monday beginning at 4:00pm. All are welcome.
A Celebration of Life also will be held at Lions Gate, Commons Hall, 1112 Laurel Oak Road for family and friends of Lois and Arny, on Tuesday, September 30th, starting at 12:00 pm.
In lieu of flowers, the family urges friends and family to send any contributions in honor of Arny to CPR Initiative through https://givebutter.com/arny-galpern.
A livestream of the service can be viewed at https://client.tribucast.com/tcid/a25096260718786