Isabelle S Segal

On the morning of Wednesday, December 28th, Isabelle (Schultz) Segal passed away in her sleep following her 96th birthday party the night before, attended by all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, where she dined on great food and had a glass of good wine. Her long life was one of feminist trailblazing in educational and professional attainment, Jewish life and tradition, and love of family.

“Izzy” was born in Bronx, New York, in 1926, to Herman Schultz and Rose Kaplan Schultz, immigrants from Minsk (in modern-day Belarus). She was deeply connected with her “baby” sister, Madeline “Maddie” Schultz Spitz, with whom she spoke nearly every day. As a New Yorker coming of age in the tumult of World War II, when the men were away, she attended William Howard Taft High School and the City College of New York in its golden era of Jewish educational opportunities, graduating with a BS in Education in 1946 at the age of 19. She went on to teach high school biology to returning GIs, including men older than she, who had left for the war before completing their own studies. At City College she met her husband, Stanley (Stan) J. Segal (died 2009). Their children, Amy Lynn Segal Shorey and Eric Andrew Segal were born in 1951 and 1957, and their second child, Mitchell, was born in 1956 with spina bifida and lived for nine months. While she and Stan separated in 1981, she loved him for the rest of her life. She received an MA from New York University in 1948 and a Ph.D in Education from the University of Michigan in 1964, one of fewer than 1,000 women graduating with Ph.Ds in the entire country that year. She completed postgraduate studies at Harvard University and Teachers College of Columbia University.

Her academic and professional focus was developmental psychology of children and adolescents. She was a senior psychologist at the Head Start program run by Bank Street College of Education as well as at other Head Start programs, including in Boston. Later, she was a child psychologist at the Rockland County Community Mental Health Center, from where she retired. She worked many years in private practice in New York City and Rockland County, both in partnership with Stan and solo. She was an Assistant Professor of Education, State University of New York, College at Buffalo. Throughout her career, she supervised and taught students, researchers, and early-career psychologists. In 1993, she studied for and celebrated an adult Bat Mitzvah at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. She instilled deeply the values of education, hard work, compassion, and excellence in her children and grandchildren.

Nobody loved her granddaughters as much as Grandma Izzy did. For Rachel Shorey, Margot Shorey, and Ella Segal, Izzy kept their favorite foods in her art-filled Upper West Side apartment, took them on adventures around New York City, remembered the names of their friends, got her knee replaced so she could continue taking care of Ella, and loved and welcomed Rachel’s and Margot’s spouses. When Rachel had memorized every lyric to the musical “Rent,” Isabelle found two tickets to the Broadway show (one good and one bad), sent Rachel to sit in the good seat, and after the show remarked to a star-struck Rachel, “well, that was loud.”

At the end of her life, she loved and was loved by her aides and helpers, especially Lola Cockfield, Rehma Muguluma, Althea Barrow, and Jennifer Mcneil, whose children she doted on and whose opinions she trusted.

In addition to the Bronx, Isabelle lived in Far Rockaway, NY, Ann Arbor, MI, Buffalo, NY, Lexington, MA, Spring Valley, NY, Manhattan, and since 2009, at Newbridge on the Charles in Dedham, MA.

She is survived by her children Amy and Eric, their spouses Everett Shorey and Karen Shoplik, her granddaughters Rachel Shorey (Eliza Cava), Margot Shorey (Avery Ash), and Ella Segal, two great-granddaughters Lena and Francesca Cava, and her sister Madeline Spitz.

In 1963, she ended the dedication to her dissertation on perceptions of teachers as follows: “To my husband Stanley, who with his encouragement helped make the impossible possible; to my mother who as the mother of one of each kind of teacher gave further support to the theoretical framework as she recalled incidents and experiences; to my children who gave of their mother; and to the teachers who gave of themselves I dedicate this work.”