Richard N. Maslow

Richard Maslow of Bedford, Edgemont, & NYC died peacefully on October 1, surrounded by family. Born October 19, 1933 to Louis and Eleanor (Lindeman) Maslow in NYC, Richard was a proud graduate of Stuyvesant High School, and NYU, and remained life-long friends with several of the childhood friends he continued to speak with almost 80 years later.

During a half-century career in high-end furniture and décor, Richard proved highly adaptable to the evolving tastes of the country. In the 1950s, he joined his father in the family’s long-established furniture business, renamed Louis Maslow & Son. By the 1960s, he had helped recruit the original roster of tenants for the newly opened D & D Building, where Louis Maslow & Son remained a fixture for over 40 years, and where Richard long served as head of the Tenant Committee, selling antiques and custom-made furniture to the world’s leading architects, collectors and interior decorators.

Prominent throughout the trade, he served as Chairman of the Board of the Furniture Manufacturers Association and supported

efforts ranging from the Kips Bay Show House to events advocating the Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA).In the 1980s, Richard bucked norms by employing people with AIDS while looking for ways to navigate a world moving away from what he called “the epoch of the dowager and the decorator.” Some of his adaptations included purchasing the Don Russeau furniture company, joining the board of Steinway Piano, and developing businesses that included Richard's Traveling Home Furnishings Center (which brought high-end items to “tent sales” in Greenwich, the Hamptons, and the like), Full Circle (which focused on refinishing and reselling pieces of used, high-quality furniture), and The Decorator’s Secret. By the 2000s, Richard, an early adopter of 1stdibs, was selling items online as G4 Decor, and had become involved in the Stamford Antiques District.

For many years Richard served as a member of the Edgemont School Board, as the Chairman of the Edgemont Recreation Committee, and on other civic boards; he coached baseball and soccer teams, and was an active father in the Boy Scouts.His life-long interest in stamps led to his becoming a nationally known creator of American First Day Covers.

An only child, Richard is survived by his beloved wife of 67 years Barbara (Plager), his children David (Cari), Jillian, Louis "Chip”(Susan), and Victoria “Tori,” grandchildren Emeline, Samuel, Sydney, and London as well as by many cousins.

Calling hours will be held on Sunday, October 11 at the Edwin L. Bennett Funeral Home (Scarsdale) from 2-5 p.m. Please consider making a donation in his name to the Bruce Museum in Greenwich