Samuel J. Preffer was born on the lower East Side of Manhattan on June 7, 1921. After his family moved from Manhattan, Sam grew up on 46th Street in Brooklyn with his parents Phillip and Pauline and his older brother Benjamin. Phillip Preffer was a furrier and worked at his own business in the garment & fur district of Manhattan. Both Phillip’s sons helped with his fur business, with Ben ultimately assuming full control of the firm after their father passed. Growing up in Brooklyn, Sam went to PS 131 Elementary School on Ft. Hamilton Parkway, PS 220 Junior High on 9th Avenue, and New Utrecht High School.
Sam enlisted in the Army Air Force after the second world war broke out and served primarily in the Pacific theater as a flight crew chief and mechanic on C-46 Commando transports. The C-46 was dubiously named the ‘flying-coffin’ by their nervous crews, who contended with numerous and unexplained fires and explosions sustained by these questionably designed aircraft.
Sam was discharged from military service with a good conduct medal in 1947. Upon returning to civilian life, Sam was married to Shirley Blatt and lived and worked in NYC as an accountant for various companies and continued to work as bookkeeper for his
brother Ben's fur business. Upon retirement, Sam and Shirley became 'snow-birds' between NYC and Tamarac, FL. Sam was active on his Tamarac condo board and had
many friends with whom he played cards and enjoyed company.
Sam is survived by two children, Pamela and Frederic, two grandchildren, Frances and Mitchell and three great-grandchildren, Benjamin, Griffin and Louisa Smith. Frances, Mike and their three children live in Marblehead MA and Mitchell and his fiancée Emma live in RI.
After Shirley passed away in 2015, Sam moved from NYC to live full-time in Florida. In the spring of 2017, Sam and other WW2 veterans were treated to an Honor Flight in Washington D.C. Since September 2020 Sam was living with his son and daughter-in-law Trisha in Stoneham, Massachusetts where he passed away on January 23, 2022 at the age of one hundred and one-half years, with his loving and grateful family close by.
The family would like to express our deepest thanks for the superb help and care provided by the Bedford MA Veterans Association, his caregivers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Care Dimensions Hospice.
A grave-side service will be held on Wednesday January 26 at 1:30PM at:
BETH MOSES Cemetery, 1500 WELLWOOD AVENUE, WEST BABYLON, NEW YORK 11704
If desired, friends may make memorial contributions to:
“Friends of the National World War II Memorial,” https://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/
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