Arnold Marvin Gussin

It is with profound sadness that we share with you the passing of Arnold Marvin Gussin. Beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend. Arnie passed away just shy of his 84th birthday, on November 7, 2020. He was a loyal, honest friend who was always there to help or make you laugh.

In his younger days, he was an avid roller-skater, dance instructor in the Catskills, until he discovered skiing in Vermont, which he continued weekly every winter until he turned 79. In later years, he developed a passion for collecting antiques, also known as his tchotchkes.

Born on November 11, 1936, to immigrant parents, he was raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, with Yiddish and Russian as his first languages. After attending Queens College and Brooklyn Law School, he went into private practice for close to 60 years. Devoted to his family, friends and clients, Arnie was honest -- sometimes to a fault. But he owned it. If you were one of his “people”, he would go to extraordinary lengths to help you in any way. If you weren't, he might still do the same.

Arnie never missed calling to sing you happy birthday, and he had perhaps the most prolific repertoire of jokes. There was literally never a moment that he would shy away from the challenge of telling one he considered topical and disarming enough to tell. And without fail, he would laugh so hard after delivering the punchline, as if he were hearing it for the very first time.

Arnold Marvin Gussin was a true mensch who was loved beyond measure by his wife of 55 years, Leslie Defren, his children Randy, Gerri (and Brett), Ronni (and Roy), and his five grandchildren, Aidan, Sadie, Josephina, August and Billie.

Arnie was one of a kind and we will miss him terribly.