HAROLD LIGHT

LIGHT--Harold, passed away peacefully at home on July 18, 2020. He was 91 years old. Husband, father, grandfather, friend, leader, public servant, veteran. Harold lived an exemplary life, he was a man of his times whose life contained multitudes. Harold was born to immigrant parents and grew up in Brooklyn in a home where English was not the first language. Intellectually gifted, he graduated Brooklyn College by age 20. Shortly before that he met the former Marilyn Weintraub in the Brooklyn neighborhood where they both lived, she was a true life partner and they stayed married for 51 years until her untimely passing. After serving in the Korean War, Harold and Marilyn started a family in 1954. He attended NYU on the G.I Bill, where he earned his Master's degree in 1959. Harold was professionally committed to public service and spent a 50 year career in a variety of non-profit organizations and institutions dedicated to the public good. Among other things, he worked as a social worker and a hospital administrator, eventually rising to become President and CEO of Long Island College Hospital which he led for two decades. After retiring to Florida, Harold was active in local community affairs and continued to feed his hungry intellect with a steady stream of newspapers and books, reveling in his lifelong love of reading. He also used his time to great advantage honing his lifelong skills telling jokes and sharpening his rapier wit. He eventually remarried in 2011 and lived with the former Bernice Gibralter until his passing. You can tell a lot about people by the duration of their relationships. In addition to a 51 year marriage Harold had friends and colleagues in his life for five, six and seven decades. This was a man who valued the people in his life and was valued equally by them. There was no higher calling for him than that. He is survived by a wife, two children and his granddaughter.