In Memory: Gerald Weinman, Age 89
Gerald Weinman died peacefully at home on April 9, four days shy of his 90th birthday, with Sandy, his wife of 63 years, by his side. His three children and six grandchildren were also with him daily in the final months of his life.
Born in Germany in 1935, Jerry Weinman was three years old when he and his parents Siegfried and Else fled the country to escape capture from the Nazis. They traveled by boat, first to Amsterdam and then to Ellis Island, New York, eventually settling near family in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. For the rest of his life, he honored his Jewish heritage and embraced his new country. In Washington Heights, he learned to play stickball and basketball, and through frequent visits to a favorite uncle, became a devoted fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. After high school, City College and the Army, he began a career in advertising, where he enjoyed a successful career writing for TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines.
Although advertising was a consistent outlet for his creativity, there were plenty of others. He wrote multiple screenplays, and was so committed to multiple projects in his final years, he spent hours tinkering with his scripts and once famously dialed the main switchboard at Netflix trying to set up a meeting. He loved music so deeply, he often sang loudly in the car to Frank Sinatra whether you asked him to or not. At the end of his life, it wasn’t uncommon for him to nod his head to the rhythm of a favorite song when he otherwise appeared unconscious.
He was passionate about sports, as a graceful tennis and paddle player, a mediocre golfer, and a committed runner with inordinately sized calves. He loved Andy Bathgate and the New York Rangers, as well the Knicks, Giants, and once the Dodgers headed west, the Boston Red Sox. He never gave up on Tiger Woods through scandal and injury, and always believed he had a chance even after he opened with 75. But his most engaged spectating was when watching his kids and his grandkids. He coached his oldest son’s hockey team despite the small detail of not knowing how to skate, and continued to pass along recommendations to the next generation from the balcony at Playland, behind the glass at Rye Country Day, and from the left field bleachers at Disbrow.
Should anyone question his credibility, he needed only to point to his one true stroke of genius, when he courted Sandy Warner of Little Neck, Queens, and convinced her to marry him on Thanksgiving Day 1961. The two were inseparable from that point forward.
Gerald Weinman leaves behind his wife, Sandy, his three children Josh, Jenny, and Sam; and their respective spouses Ann, Billy, and Lisa; and six grandchildren: Caleb, Madison, Savannah, Elodie, Charlie and Will. A funeral service will be held Friday, April 11 at Zion Funeral Home in Mamaroneck, followed by a shiva visit at the Weinman home at 66 Milton Road Apt. G61 from 3-6 p.m., that afternoon
