Norton I Garfinkle

Norton Garfinkle, husband, father, grandfather, mentor, professor, entrepreneur, author and philanthropist was a lifelong New Yorker born in the Bronx. His parents, Jacob and Zeena, were both orphaned in pogroms in Eastern Europe. They made their way to the United States, where they met and married. As a first generation American, Norton distinguished himself in New York’s public school system, earning an honors degree at Stuyvesant High School. When he was 17 years old, Norton and the future New York Times executive editor Max Frankel hosted a Sunday radio show, where they discussed the news of the week. Norton won an academic scholarship to Columbia University, where he was a Phi Betta Kappa graduate with honors. He did his graduate work at Columbia and Princeton. Amherst then invited Norton to join its Economics Department, making him one of the youngest professors in its history. Norton taught Economics and Economic History at Amherst and edited The Journal of Economic History. In 1959 DC Heath published Norton’s first book, Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. He was 27.

Following his academic career, Norton was a successful entrepreneur across six decades and multiple industries. He pioneered target marketing as the founder of the Brand Rating Research Corporation. His company Cambridge Parallel Processing detected land mines for the US and foreign governments and supplied search engine systems to Reuters. Oral Research Laboratories developed Plax, the first pre-brushing dental rinse. Electronic Retailing Systems created self-checkout systems for supermarkets. As Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Lamaze Institute for Family Education, Norton published Lamaze Parent and Lamaze Baby magazines, as well as instructional materials for new parents distributed by thousands of Childbirth and Nurse Educators in hospitals throughout the country.

An inveterate scholar, Norton returned to academic pursuits later in life. He is the author of The American Dream vs. The Gospel of Wealth: The Fight for a Productive Middle-Class Economy. He co-authored with the preeminent Lincoln historian Harold Holzer, A Just and Generous Nation: Abraham Lincoln and the Fight for American Opportunity. He co-edited with the renowned public opinion analyst and social scientist Daniel Yankelovich, Uniting America: Restoring the Vital Center to American Democracy.

Throughout his life Norton contributed his time and talent in service of a better, more just world. He served as Chairman of the National Hospice Foundation, Chairman of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, Chairman of the George Washington University Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Harlem School of the Arts. He also served on the boards of CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College and Public Agenda.

Norton passed away peacefully on March 20th at the age of 94 in the townhouse he designed on the Upper East Side. He is survived by his loving family, his brother Ray Garfinkle and his sister Ruth Levine; his children from his first marriage, Devra Garfinkle Johnson, David Garfinkle and Richard Garfinkle; his children from his second marriage Gillian Garfinkle Larson and Nick Garfinkle; his eight grandchildren,

Hope, Christian, Samuel, Adam, Miranda, Ember, Willow and Rowan; and his wife of a half century, Sally Minard