JOHN FARBER

FARBER--John J., PhD. Dr. John Farber, age 98, passed away peacefully at his home in Manhattan on February 26, 2024. Dr. Farber was the founder of ICC Industries Inc., a trading and manufacturing concern. He was born in Timisoara, Romania on August 23, 1925 to Eugene and Magda Farber, Hungarian Jews. During World War II, John was a leader of a Jewish youth group and was sent to compulsory labor camp. He graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry in Cluj, Romania. In 1948, the family's paint factory was nationalized, and the family fled. John went to Palestine, arriving shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel. He joined a kibbutz and worked as a laboratory chemist, then went to New York to study at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now NYU Poly), where he completed a doctorate in polymer chemistry. In 1953, he married Maya Kleyman, whose family also came from Timisoara but spent the war years in Managua, Nicaragua. He joined his father-in-law, who had founded an export-import company, and began trading in raw materials for the paint industry. That business developed into what is today ICC Industries Inc. John also enjoyed time spent at the family's dairy/beef farm in the Catskill Mountains. In addition to Maya, John is survived by his four children, Sandra (Cynthia) and their son Ben (Lily), Deborah (Alan), Michael and his son Zack, and Claudia and her sons.