MARTIN ZELNIK

ZELNIK--Martin. It is with sadness that we, members of the Riverdale Country School class of 1957, report that our beloved classmate and friend, Martin Zelnik, died on April 1 at his winter home in Sarasota, FL. He was 82 years old. Martin ("Marty" to us) was a lifelong Riverdalian, having been born, raised, and spent his adult life in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He and his older brother, Reggie, went to RCS. Marty started in kindergarten and stayed on through our high school graduation. After Riverdale, Marty attended Brandeis University where he played five sports - football, tennis, soccer, basketball and fencing. With Zelnik on the court the Brandeis tennis team compiled a 30-win, three-loss record over a three-year stretch. As a result of his athletic prowess, he was inducted into the Brandeis Hall of Fame. During his senior spring season at Brandeis he was the first Women's tennis team coach. After Brandeis, Marty attended the Columbia University School of Architecture and founded Panero Zelnik Associates, a distinguished architecture firm that he led for 50 years. As an architect, he also taught and created the Interior Design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology at the State University of New York and co-authored three major design publications available in eight languages. These guides have become the bibles for all interior design students. He was the architect of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale - of which he was especially proud. In recent years, he purchased the Moccasin Wallow Golf Club, located outside of Sarasota which he co- owned with his son Noah. We, Marty's classmates, will remember him as one of our lifelong friends who in recent years served as the lynchpin of our class, arranging myriad reunions for us and, during the past two Covid years, zooming with us on Sundays. An endless source of ideas and idealism, Marty always thought of others before himself. We give our condolences to Marty's survivors, Lassa, his wife of 59 years; his sons, Geoffrey, Bryan and Noah; and grandsons, Cooper and Arik, as well as his niece, Pamela. Riverdale Country School, Class of 1957