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News, Obituaries
Monday, November 09, 2009
Jerry Davidoff, former Board of Ed, RTM Member Dies at 83
Jerry Davidoff, a former chair of the Westport Board of Education and Representative Town Meeting (RTM) member, died Saturday at the Connecticut Hospice unit at Norwalk Hospital of complications from encephalitis, a virus of the brain. He was 83.
Jerry and Denny Davidoff in a 2006 photo. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Uua.org photo
Davidoff, an attorney by profession, was a champion of civil liberties and a nationally active lay leader in the Unitarian Universalist faith movement. He and his wife Denise lived in Westport from 1959 to the late 1990s when they moved to Norwalk.
Born July 1, 1926, in New York City, the son of a physician, Davidoff was raised in the Sunnyside section of Queens, N.Y., and educated at Little Red School House in Greenwich Village, Bronx High School of Science, the Horace Mann School in New York City, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Yale Law School.
While practicing law in New York City from 1950 to 1958, Davidoff met and in 1955 married the former Denise Ellen Taft of Brooklyn, N.Y., who later owned an advertising agency based in Fairfield and later in Westport.
A former presiding officer of the national Unitarian Universalists as their elected “moderator,” Denise Davidoff is also a former board member of the Interfaith Alliance and a past chair of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation. She is now a senior consultant to Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago.
The marriage of Jerry and Denise Davidoff produced two sons. Douglass, born in 1957, lives in Arlington, Mass., and is a public relations and marketing consultant. John, born in 1960, lives in Evanston, Ill., and owns Davidoff Communications, a strategy, sales, and marketing consultancy located in Chicago.
Relocating from Manhattan in 1958, Davidoff established a law practice in Westport that lasted until his retirement in 1996.
During that time, he served nine years as an elected Democratic member of the Board of Education, including two years as chair, and four years--1991 to 1995--as an elected member of the nonpartisan RTM.
He also served his colleagues in Westport as president of the Westport Bar Association. In 1960, he ran unsuccessfully for the Connecticut House of Representatives from Westport.
It was in his work for not-for-profits, especially religious organizations, that Davidoff advocated for civil rights and civil liberties.
He also explored the possibilities for lay leadership in a faith characterized by congregational polity, and advocated for support of professional ministers to transform lives of their parishioners.
At the Unitarian Church in Westport, his religious home for nearly a half-century, Davidoff served as church newsletter editor, a Sunday School teacher, a member of the Building Committee, Ministerial Search Committee, Endowment Committee and Long Range Planning Committee.
He was chair of the Ministerial Sabbatical Committee end served twice on the church Board of Trustees.
In the Unitarian Universalist denomination, Davidoff was chair of the Election Review Committee, which was concerned with how denominational election campaigns might be improved.
He was also chair of the Election Campaign Practices Committee, concerned with monitoring and mediating between candidates in contested denominational elections.
He served a six-year term as a member of the Commission on Appraisal, and as such was a co-author of “Our Professional Ministry,” a study of the gate keeping functions for UU ministry.
He was a member for eight years of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, nationally responsible for credentialing UU ministers and, when necessary, disciplining them..
Davidoff was also a trustee of the Alban Institute, a consulting, publishing and research organization based in Herndon, Va., with the mission of assisting the development of churches and church leadership. He had served as secretary of the board and a member of its Executive Committee.
Davidoff also was a founder and board member for both the Connecticut Women’s Educational and Legal Fund and the Connecticut Divorce Mediation Council. He also served as board chair for the Westchester Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.
Davidoff was an avid sailor who owned three sloops during his life and cruised extensively on the coast of New England from Maine to Connecticut as well as in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean Sea.
He played tennis and enjoyed words and literature. He had an extensive catalog of poems memorized and typically directed his children and other young adults to his copy of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary to look up the meaning or etymology of words.
Frequently adorned with a bow tie until his retirement, Davidoff presented a professorial affect and did not lightly suffer lapses in grammar, word usage, nor courtesy, often loudly and aggressively correcting transgressors.
On Sundays, he wore red socks in honor of Unitarian Universalist ministers, selecting red because many of his favorite UU ministers were formed under the crimson colors of Harvard University Divinity School.
With his wife, Denise, Davidoff was granted the Distinguished Service Award by the Unitarian Universalist Association in 2006.
He treasured scores of friends who dated to his boyhood days in Queens and his university days in Chapel Hill and New Haven. He befriended young adults, many of whom were disaffected from their parents or had lost their parents due to early deaths.
Later, he served as mentor to young adults entering the ministry. He had hundreds of friends across the country, many in UU churches, whom he met during the course of his work in the denomination as well as attendance at 40 years of annual UU general assemblies.
As a family patriarch, he paid special attention in his later years to relatives who could have felt disconnected from the family because of the loss of a parent early in life.
Davidoff was predeceased by his parents, Bernard and Mildred Davidoff of New York, Westport, and Palm Beach, Fla., as well as by his brother, Paul Davidoff of Brooklyn, N.Y., a noted urban planner and social advocacy theorist.
In additon to his wife and sons, Davidoff is survived by his daughter-in-law, Jacki Gelb Davidoff of Evanston, Ill.; four grandchildren, Robert Davidoff and Sarah Ellen Davidoff of Cincinnati, and Joshua and Jasper Davidoff of Evanston; and Douglass Davidoff’s partner, Marta Flanagan of Arlington, formerly of Westport.
He is also survived by four neices and nephews, Susan Davidoff of Newton, Mass.; Carla Davidoff of New Paltz, N.Y., Daniel Kirk-Davidoff of Columbia, Md.; and Thomas Davidoff of North Vancouver, B.C., in Canada. Finally, he is survived by two first cousins, Judith Dawidoff Fresco of New York City and Robert Dawidoff of Los Angeles.
A memorial service to recognize and remember him will take place on Saturday, Nov. 28, at 5:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Church in Westport at 10 Lyons Plains Road with the Revs. Marta Flanagan and Olivia Holmes officiating.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions be made to the Living Tradition Fund of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston, or to the Interfaith Alliance Foundation in Washington, D.C., or to the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund in Hartford, Conn.
Comments: Comment Policy
Jerry Davidoff, in addition to his many accomplishments, was a kind and funny man. He will be sorely missed in the Unitarian Universalist community. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. RIP, Jerry.
-Louise & Sean
His generosity knew no bounds, like his love of limericks.
Diane Cady
I ran with Jerry for the Board of Education (with Frank Weiner) in 1989. Jerry was a strong advocate for public education and an honorable man. My condolences to his wife and family.
Dear Louise and Sean,
Thanks for your memories of Dad. Especially the humor. I know that Mom and John join with me in thanking you for your kindness.
-- Doug Davidoff
Arlington, Mass.
Dear Diane,
Dad spoke to me about you just a few weeks ago, before he became very ill. Thanks for remembering the limitless limericks (a very special subset of the limitless poetry) and the generosity. His generosity to me of late has been profound.
Memories…
-- Doug
Dear Ira,
Thanks for remembering Dad and his devotion to the cause of public education. Thanks also for remembering Frank Weiner, one of the most remarkable people on the remarkable faculty of Staples High School during the 1970s.
Mom, John, and I appreciate your condolences.
-- Doug
Jerry was a wonderful, teacher, mentor and friend to a new generation of interfaith activists. At LEADD, his legal discussions always went hand in hand with that amazing twinkle in his eye and great laugh. Even with physical challenges the past few years, Jerry, with uber-teammate Denny, brought a thoughtful, challenging and encouraging strength to our youth program. I was honored to call him a friend and inspired by his life. He will be missed but remembered for a long time by many.
Jay Keller
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