Howard Mark Berkower

Howard was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 22, 1957 to Joseph and Betty Berkower. He grew up the youngest and most cheerfully rambunctious of three children in the Mill Basin area of Brooklyn. He graduated from South Shore High School, obtained his B.S. degree in accounting from Brooklyn College, and became a licensed CPA. After several years of accounting practice, Howard pivoted to studying law and obtained his J.D. degree from Cardozo Law School.

Following law school graduation, Howard spent an enlightening and impactful year clerking for a US federal district court judge in Norfolk, Virginia. He then returned to New York City and spent 41 years practicing corporate and securities law at prominent law firms, including Fried Frank, Baker & McKenzie and McCarter & English. He was a member of the New York and Connecticut bars. Howard was a frequent public speaker on corporate and securities matters, including appearing on Bloomberg Television Network addressing the meaning of material adverse change provisions in public merger agreements. He authored articles published in several leading magazines and was quoted in newspapers on cutting-edge developments in the corporate and securities fields. Howard enjoyed learning and mastering different areas of law, an example of which was becoming his firm’s expert on the federal COVID 19-pandemic-driven Paycheck Protection Program.

Howard met Mindy Pisetzner when they were both junior law firm associates at two different downtown firms. They married on August 9, 1987 and, after a few years living in the city, moved to Chappaqua, in Westchester County. They welcomed two wonderful children: a son Jason and a daughter Jenna. The Chappaqua years were family-focused, full of close friendships, dinners, barbecues, movie nights, holiday gatherings, play dates, sleepovers, school and camp. Howard and Mindy’s home became the hub of family holiday celebrations, bringing both sides of the family together and creating many special, lasting memories. One of Howard’s favorite memories was regularly getting up early the night after Thanksgiving and conspiratorially polishing off the remaining gigantic fruit platter with his father-in-law.

Always loving to socialize over a meal, Howard organized dinners for the husbands of Mindy’s book club members. These steakhouse gatherings expanded to include friends, and friends of friends, of the original group, and were always fun with great conversation.

The family later moved within Westchester to the hamlet of Purchase and Howard eventually shifted his work location to his firm’s nearby Stamford, Connecticut office. Happy occasions included both kids’ college graduations and Jenna’s wedding. During those years, Howard joyfully reunited with his group of childhood friends from his old Brooklyn neighborhood.

Someone recently shared that “Howard was a warm and friendly guy in a world that needs more warm and friendly guys.” He enjoyed meeting and getting to know people, often breaking the ice by asking whether someone would choose either a cookie or a danish. (He was firmly in the danish camp.) His gregariousness, kindness and sense of humor put people at ease and resulted in many friendships.

Howard loved many different foods such as ribeye steak; a corned beef sandwich with mustard, a sour pickle and a kasha knish; his mother-in-law’s homemade cheesecake with lemon rind; Italian food; Middle Eastern food; Chinese food; salty snacks; a vanilla milkshake, so long as it was made by him with Fox’s U-Bet vanilla syrup; and the occasional hamburger with a cold Smithwick’s beer.

An avid, lifelong music fan, Howard especially enjoyed The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lake Street Dive, Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Alanis Morissette, Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynne and Robbie Robertson.

And nothing made him laugh harder than “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”


Howard is survived by his wife Mindy; his son Jason; his daughter Jenna and son-in-law Miller Murchison; sisters-in-law Karen Fried (Richard) and Michele Pisetzner; nephew Andrew Pisetzner; cousins Ellen Vera (Cesar), Maurice Berkower (Hedy), and Irving Martin Berkowitz (Molly); and many other relatives and friends. He was predeceased by his parents Joseph and Betty Berkower; his siblings Morris Berkower and Elise Berkower; his in-laws Dr. Ira and Barbara Pisetzner; and his brother-in-law Howard Pisetzner.



No flowers, please. For those wishing to make donations in Howard’s memory, the family suggests the National Kidney Foundation, Renewal.org, the American Society of Hematology Research Awards Fund, or any personally meaningful charity.