Howard C. Kaplan

Howard C. Kaplan, 85, of Palm Beach Gardens, FL, formerly of Stamford, CT, died on Monday, August 10, 2020 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Howard was born in New York, NY, on May 23, 1935, the son of Irving Kaplan and Rose Bernstein Kaplan. He is survived by his beloved wife of 61 years, Helen Laufer Kaplan, their three daughters, Sara (David Perlmutter) of Ridgefield, CT, Elizabeth (Federico Minoli) of Boston, MA, and Jennifer (Ken Doroshow) of Washington, DC, and eight grandchildren, Ben Perlmutter, Clara Perlmutter, Billy Perlmutter, Laura Perlmutter, David Minoli, Rebby Minoli, Abe Doroshow, and Eli Doroshow.

Howard grew up in the tight-knit community of the Amalgamated, a collection of cooperative apartment buildings in the North Bronx, where he attended P.S. 95 and DeWitt Clinton High School. He left the Amalgamated in 1952 to attend the University of Michigan, but it always remained a strong part of his identity. His wife’s family lived in a building across the street from his, and many of his lifelong friends grew up with him in the old neighborhood.

He came to Stamford as a young attorney, having graduated from Yale Law School, to join the law firm of Wofsey, Rosen, Kweskin, & Kuriansky. He stayed there his entire legal career, becoming a partner and a pillar of the Stamford legal community. In his four and a half decades of practice, he represented the whole of Stamford – his daughters knew that they could not go to a movie theater or a doctor’s office or a restaurant or a service station or a dry cleaner that was not also a client of their dad’s. He believed in community, and he invested his time and talents in numerous civic and charitable organizations. From 1965 – 1970, he served on the Stamford Board of Representatives, rising to the position of Majority Leader. He was a founding member of the Stamford Board of Ethics. He was the President of the Stamford Child Care Center, and a long-time director of and counsel to the Stamford Land Conservation Trust. He served on the board of the United Jewish Federation of Stamford, headed the music committee for the Stamford Jewish Center, and supported the Visiting Nurses Association. He also, for many years, taught Business Law at the University of Connecticut’s Stamford branch, and taught undergraduate seminars at Yale College in New Haven, CT.

In all these roles, he was a friend, mentor, and counselor, with a vivid, gregarious, and generous personality. He was well-known and beloved for his endless supply of off-color jokes, his love of pranks, and his ability both to compose profane limericks at a moment’s notice and recite great poetry by heart. He was an avid lover of classical music and a passionate sports fan; he was deeply knowledgeable about history and politics and apt to burst into song without warning. He was a long-time runner and, until the last months of his life, an enthusiastic tennis player. Above all, he was a family man – a devoted husband, an engaged and loving father, and the proudest of grandfathers. He will always be missed and never forgotten.

Due to the current pandemic, a celebration of Howard’s life will be scheduled for a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in his name to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Donation Processing, P.O. Box 5014, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5014 or michaeljfox.org.