Ellen Halprin Strauss

Scranton native, Ellen Halprin Strauss, died September 27th peacefully in her sleep at Levine-Dickson Hospice Care in Huntersville, NC. She had been living with family in Concord, NC since 2023. She was 81.

Born in Scranton on April 26, 1944, she was the daughter of former Scranton School Board president Norman Halprin and his wife "Sissy." Her father was in a foxhole in Italy when he got the news of her birth. Seventeen years later, Ellen and her father each got their student pilot's license soloing out of a cow pasture in Tupper Lake, New York.

Despite her years in Florida and 43 years in suburban Washington, DC, she always considered Scranton home and the members of the Central High School Class of '62 her good friends, many of whom she kept in touch with through the years.

Her four years at Syracuse University gave her some of the most memorable experiences of her life. First, when she was chosen for the prestigious Washington Seminar, an intensive course that provided the opportunity for one-on-one meeting and discussion with some of the most influential people in government. (She thought Justice Douglas was the most impressive.)

Second, when she was chosen for the Syracuse-in-Italy study abroad program where she lived with an Italian family in fabulous Florence. She would tell you, "My feet never touched the ground." In later years she would make two more trips to Italy.

In 1966 she married and moved to suburban Washington, DC where she began her professional career. She was proud of the fact that, except for her first year out of Syracuse, she always held executive positions. Her first was with The Epilepsy Foundation (now the Epilepsy Foundation of America) where, after one year, at the age of 24, she was promoted to Assistant National Director of Information and Education. Her next was with B'nai B'rith, the men's international service organization, where she was Director of Fundraising Publicity.

But it was in the late '70s, as editor of the Prince Georges Sentinel, an award-winning weekly in suburban Washington, that she got her "dream job." During her tenure, the newspaper won several awards from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association including two consecutive first place awards which she garnered for editorial writing.

Beginning in 1973, along with her then-husband, Brian Strauss, they owned and operated as many as four Baskin-Robbins ice cream franchises in Montgomery County, Maryland. Though their marriage ended in divorce, they remained business partners for 30 years. From 1996 until 2001, she was involved on virtually a full-time basis with the Baskin-Robbins National Advisory Council where, as one of four elected national franchisee leaders, she was instrumental in shaping policy affecting franchisees nationwide.

Beginning in 1989, as vice president of an independent marketing firm, she wrote the extensive proposals which resulted in their client company securing major direct mail contracts with several auto manufacturers.

She retired in 2003. In her later years she did volunteer work at the Cupboard, a food pantry sponsored by Jewish Family Services of South Florida.

She got her private pilot's license in 1979.

She is survived by her siblings Barbara Rose of Plantation, Florida; Jay Halprin (Cathy Cunningham) of Charlotte, North Carolina; Nancy Halprin of Charlotte, North Carolina; Steven Halprin (Lisa Hosson) of Concord, North Carolina; nieces and nephews, Lisa Rose Reber (Robert) of Laurel, Maryland; Jaime Rose Drummy (Matthew) of St. Petersburg, Florida; Jessica (Halprin) Ward of Concord, North Carolina; and grand-nephews Liam and Miles Drummy and Paxton and Payton Ward.

She will be buried in the family plot at Temple Israel Cemetery, West Warren Street, Dunmore on Friday, October 3rd at 2 p.m. in a graveside ceremony.

Friends will be received during a period of shiva from 3-7 p.m. at the Radisson at Lackawanna Station Hotel, 700 Lackawanna Avenue, Scranton, following the funeral service.