So sad to find this out. I always would think of Ms Salzman and wonder about her.  
Judith Salzman was my mentor when I was in middle school. She was very sweet and a very kind woman. I still have the books she gifted me and I read them over from time to time. I am very grateful to have gotten to know her. I know she loved her family dearly. May her family continue to cherish every moment they had with her. 

So sorry to find out about the passing of Ms. Salzman. I have delivered her mail for a couple years and she was always so nice to me. She was a great human and will be missed. 

(Continued from previous post) She also developed a passionate interest in cooking inspired by Julia Child and her cooking skills were profound. She baked all of her family’s bread for many years and her lasagne always included noodles she made herself. 

Judith and Michael divorced in 1983 and continued to coparent thereafter. Judith had a succession of jobs including library clerk, typist, receptionist, caterer, public speaker, UA campus shuttle driver and 18 wheel truck driver. She also started a computer business that operated for several years. She also lived on Mt. Lemmon for a time and was an active member of their volunteer fire department. Later she earned her Microsoft Certified Server Engineer certificate and worked in the IT department of the Pasqua Yaqui Tribe, a job she loved and felt matched her skills and personality better than any other position she’d held.

In her later years Judith joined and loved the Pima Friends Meeting, prepared meals for the Primavera foundation’s homeless services for many years and became a mother-in-law to Michael Hartigan and a grandmother to Linus Hartigan. She had a succession of beloved cats and rejoiced in friends and family near and far. The cognitive degeneration in her later years provided a special challenge that she battled mightily to manage. 

Judith was a kind, loving, driven and intensely passionate individual and her legacy continues with her three children and grandchild as well as the continuing emergence of women’s rights legislation, progressive political issues of many kinds and her general commitment to creating a kinder and more fair world for everybody. She passed away in her home on January 5, 2020 and will be missed by the many who loved her.

Judith Blair Salzman was born along with her twin sister Jill to Helaine and Marshall Salzman on Sept 16th, 1943 in Chicago. Marshall, a Navy man, was posted away from home at the time and heard about his daughters’ birth via telegram. The sisters were followed by two brothers, Ken and Robert and the family stayed in Chicago until Judith and Jill were halfway through high school and the family moved to Evanston, IL. 

Judith went on to Washington University and then North Park College, studying English literature until as she said “I nearly graduated but flunked two courses when I was busy writing thank you cards for the bridal showers.” The showers were for her impending marriage to Michael Maximov, a young man she’d met on a blind date. The Salzman twins were set up by family friend Evelyn Salk and when the young men entered the house Judith whispered “I get the tall one!” The tall one and Judith were married in 1965 and Judith spent the next three years supporting the two of them as a secretary in Iowa City, Iowa while Michael finished medical school. They had three children, Justin in 1968, Marc in 1970 and Hannah in 1971. In 1968 Judith joined La Leche League, a breastfeeding organization and in 1972 she became a leader in their community. She founded the Fort Huachuca/Sierra Vista La Leche League chapter in 1973 when the family was stationed there.

Next the family moved back to Iowa City for Michael’s post graduate training and Judith joined the Iowa Women’s Political Caucus and finished her BA degree while raising their three children who were so close in age that they were all in diapers at once. 

The family then relocated to Tucson where Judith became involved with the National Council of Jewish Women and was the Chairwoman of the Southern Arizona Coalition for the Equal Rights Amendment. She wrote and delivered moving speeches at ERA conventions until the amendment unfortunately missed ratification by just three states. (Continues)

The last picture I took of my Mom a few days before she passed. I was showing her an instagram filter.

OBITUARY

Judith Blair Salzman

September 16, 1943 – January 6, 2020

Desert Rose Heather Cremation & Burial

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