FINKELSTEIN, Melville 1923-2010
FINKELSTEIN, ZAIDBURG, VAN BUREN, BREWER
Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 9/6/2010 at 16:38:17
[Waterloo Courier, Sunday, May 16, 2010]
Dr. Melville Finkelstein, 87, of Cedar Falls, died Friday, May 14, 2010, at Sartori Memorial Hospital.
He was born in the Bronx, New York on Feb. 9, 1923, to Isadore and Lillian Finkelstein. He joined a four-year-old brother, Leonard.
Mel was educated in the public schools of New York City and, surprisingly, at one time attended a one-room school house. Growing up, Mel lived just a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. He attended baseball games from an early age and saw Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto in their prime. His love of the sport continued throughout his life.
When Mel was in 8th grade, his teacher encouraged him to study for a statewide exam which, if passed, would qualify him to attend Townsend Harris High School, a three-year boy’s prep school for admission into the College of the City of New York. Mel passed the test and began high school at the age of 12, graduating at 15 and entering City College as a history major. Although Mel later pursued a different career, his interest in history continued throughout his life. In his later years he especially enjoyed reading about the settlement of Manhattan Island by the Dutch in “The Island at the Center of the World” by Russell Shorto. As a boy, he had played baseball and found artifacts from the Native Americans who had lived there as well as from the Revolutionary War in fields mentioned in this account.
World War II interrupted Mel’s college career when he enlisted at 19 and became a member of the 246th Signal Corps of the United States Army where he was a teletype operator. This band of brothers participated in five battles, which included the D-Day invasion going in on Omaha Beach, and battles in Northern France, Central Europe, Rhineland and the Battle of the Bulge. Every July they met together in Tennessee, where most of them were from, for a reunion. Mel’s memories of his WW II experiences were recorded on videotape by the Grout Museum. Mel has participated in events sponsored by the Cedar Falls Historical Society and has also spoken about this time in his life to various professors’ classes at the University of Northern Iowa.
After returning from the war, Mel continued his college career, but changed his major to psychology. In June of 1950 he graduated from City College with a Master’s Degree and was married to Sylvia Zaidburg.
Mel continued his education at the University of Chicago, being granted a Ph.D. in 1956. In 1957, Mel, Sylvia and their one-year-old son Mark moved to the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area where he became a Clinical Psychologist with Northeast Psychiatric Clinic. Mel practiced psychology in the Cedar Valley until 2002 when he retired. A tribute to his skill can be found in Carol Hebald’s book “The Heart Too Long Suppressed” (Northeastern University Press, 2001).
A voracious reader from an early age, Mel enjoyed all kinds of good literature from Shakespeare to historical works on the Civil War by Shelby Foote; “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns-Goodwin; “Grant and Sherman” by Charles Bracelen Flood, “High Tide at Gettysburg” by Glenn Tucker and “1776” by David McCullough. Mel also enjoyed classical music, especially Puccini opera. Attending performances by the Metropolitan Opera in Minneapolis every spring was a joyful occasion for him. An avid sports fan, he seldom missed a good baseball game in the summer and college wrestling and football in the fall and winter. He especially enjoyed events in the UNI-Dome, the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, and the Hearst Center for the Arts. He served on the Board of the Artists Series of Wartburg College for six years and on the Board of Sons of Jacob Synagogue for six years also.
Mel was devoted to his family, his patients and his country. He will be remembered for his keen mind, winning smile, wonderful sense of humor and New York accent which faded with time, but still could be detected in certain words. His steadfast adherence to truth and honesty sometimes led to heated discussions, but also brought him respect from those who knew him.
Mel was preceded in death by his parents, his brother, his first wife, Sylvia, who died in 1971, and his Cousin Lucille Maizle.
Mel is survived by his wife of 37 years, Dr. Judith Finkelstein, and his children and grandchildren; Mark Finkelstein of Des Moines; James Brewer and his wife Carol and children Gregory and Janelle of Hawthorn Woods, Ill.; Ann Van Buren and her husband Darrel and his daughter Lara and her husband Matt Stapleton, all of Nampa, Idaho, and son John and his wife Amber and daughter Haley Rae of Fiddletown, Calif.; and Blair Brewer and his wife Kristin and their daughter Gabrielle of Ames. A niece, Lois Linet and her children Craig and Valerie and a nephew Rick Diamond and his children Keren and Joshua, as well as cousins Susan Chambre, Irma Sachs and Ernest Field also survive.
His family wishes to thank Mrs. Shari Marshall; Dr. Diane Heindl and her colleagues; the doctors, nurses, emergency room staff and paramedics at Sartori Memorial Hospital; and the administrators, nurses and staff at the Martin Center of the Western Home Communities for their professional, competent and compassionate care of Mel during the final years of his long life.
Services will be 1:30 p.m. today at Sons of Jacob Synagogue, with burial in the Beth Olem Section of Memorial Park Cemetery, where military rites will be conducted by Cedar Falls Amvets Post 49 and the Iowa Army National Guard. Hagarty–Waychoff–Grarup Funeral Service on West Ridgeway is in charge of arrangements.
In lieu of flowers memorials may be sent to the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., the World War II project at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, the Cedar Falls Historical Society, the Western Home Communities, or a charity of the donor’s choice.
Black Hawk Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
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