Gilda Yolles Mintz

Gilda Yolles Mintz, mother of Louis Mintz and Stephen Mintz, mother-in-law of Beverly Crilly and Jennifer Elliott-Mintz, and grandmother of Leo, Ian, Norah, Delaney and Silas Mintz, passed away peacefully at the age of 88 on September 1, 2023.

If you were in New York’s media or public relations industry from the 1960s through the 1990s, you knew Gilda – a professional trailblazer for women in the spirit of feminine icon Mary Tyler Moore. She was also a successful parent and recognized civic leader during her long residence in Teaneck NJ, where she raised her family.

Born on May 2, 1935, Gilda lived her entire life in the Greater New York area and earned an undergraduate degree from Hunter College in 1956. Before the age of 30, she travelled independently for months through Europe (virtually unheard of for a single woman at the time), became a member of John F. Kennedy’s entourage during his successful Presidential campaign in 1960 and was awarded runner-up in the Miss Fire Island Beauty Pageant.

Her family emigrated from modern-day Ukraine in 1920 when the Stretiner Rebbe – her maternal grandfather and one of the most distinguished and revered Hassidic rebbes of that time – arrived on the Lower East Side on Manhattan with the support of followers who first arrived in America around World War I. Gilda’s mother, Sarah Pearl Langner, was the oldest of the Rebbe’s five daughters and had three children with her husband, Cantor Naftali Yolles, but tragically passed away when Gilda was only two years old. Gilda’s father, a renown tenor, continued to provide cantorial services to synagogues nationally while Gilda and her older sister Dorothy were placed in loving foster care with the family of Max and Mary Heyman in Far Rockaway, NY. Gilda graduated from Far Rockaway High School in 1952 at the age of 17.

After college and her time in Europe, Gilda’s professional career took shape at Ruder & Finn, a leading global public relations agency at the time. Over more than 20 years with the firm, she rose to the position of Senior Vice President and led highly successful engagements with many blue-chip clients including Lenox China. In 1978, a campaign she conceived and led for the Wallcovering Information Bureau received the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Award, recognized as the most prestigious national honor for public relations programs.

Other clients in her illustrious career included Orrefors Crystal, The National D-Day Museum and CBS News with Bill Moyers. Her colleagues and clients consistently praised her intelligence, savvy and boundless energy.

Outside the office Gilda enjoyed sharing her many passions with friends and family including her love of world travel, chocolate ice cream, U.S. Open Tennis and summer days on the beach and boardwalk. She was also an avid baseball fan who grew up going to Dodgers games at Ebbets Field and loved seeing Sandy Koufax on the mound.

From 1963 to 1974, Gilda was married to David Mintz and they had two sons together, Louis and Stephen. With unwavering love, it was family and friends that Gilda most cherished – and watching her grandchildren grow and thrive drove her seemingly endless grit and determination through final years filled with chronic pain and numerous medical challenges. Pre-deceased by her older brother Harry Yolles and older sister Dorothy Mathis, she leaves behind her children, Louis Mintz (Beverly Crilly), Stephen Mintz (Jennifer Elliott) and five grandchildren: Silas, Delaney, Norah, Ian and Leo.

In memory of Gilda, the family requests that contributions be made in her honor to the National Organization of Women.

May Gilda’s memory be a blessing and may her family find comfort among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem and around the world.