Marylin Lila Hurewitz

1926 - 2021

Marylin Lila (Pruss) Hurewitz passed away on Wednesday, October 20, at her son's home in Delmar, NY, surrounded by family. Marylin was born in Brooklyn on May 17, 1926, the second daughter of Philip and Jennie (Levinsky) Pruss. She graduated from Hunter College in 1946 with a degree in biology, followed by a year of graduate studies at Duke University and a year as a researcher at Goldwater Memorial Hospital. She married Bernard Hurewitz in 1949, and in 1954 they moved to Island Park, NY.

After a decade of volunteer work in the 1950s and 1960s, Marylin earned a Master's degree in Education from Yeshiva University, and became a teacher, first in East Meadow and then in Island Park. While teaching, she helped mobilize the district's teachers to form the first teacher's union there – with Marylin becoming the union president and lead contract negotiator. She retired from teaching in 1984, and (post-retirement) developed a supplemental science program for the district's students.

In 2001 Marylin and Bernie moved full time to Coconut Creek, FL, where Marylin became active in her community's bridge, exercise, and opera education programs. She also continued her volunteer activities, by becoming involved with the local JAFCO chapter and becoming an after-school tutor with the Broward Library. Marylin remained an avid and voracious reader until her final illness, devouring books and both the NY Times and the local newspaper daily. Until 2020, when COVID shut down Florida, she still drove herself everywhere.

Marylin was preceded in death by her husband of 64 years, Bernard, and by her sister Adelaide and brother-in-law Irving Hechtlinger. She is survived by her daughter Perin Hurewitz and her wife Harriet Kirk (New York City), her son Jay Hurewitz and his wife Gail and daughter Lena (Delmar, NY), her niece Phyllis Friedenthal and her husband Martin (Island Park, NY), and her grandnephew Andrew Friedenthal and his wife Kaley and their daughter: her beloved great-grandniece Joanna Belle (Austin, TX).

A private funeral was held at New Montefiore Cemetery on Long Island. Donations in Marylin's memory may be made to Feeding America, with acknowledgements sent to Jay.