Evelyn Popper Gerstman

Evelyn Gerstman, born in White Plains, NY, July 20, 1923, died peacefully in her sleep under Hospice Care July 13, 2019, in Williamsburg, VA. She was one week shy of her 96th birthday. Evelyn spent the bulk of her life in Buffalo, NY and moved to Williamsburg in Feb 2012 to WindsorMeade Retirement Community. Evelyn was the youngest of four siblings of Morris Popper and Lillian Greenbaum. Before she was born the family moved from Brooklyn to the country, White Plains. A family tragedy occurred after the Great Depression when Evelyn lost her father in a car accident, at age 12. She used to say, “I went from a home with a tennis court, to working in a factory.” “Evie” and her older sister attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for college, where she obtained a degree, majoring in Psychology, minoring in Sociology. While in college, America entered World War II and she met a Navy enlistee, Hubert A. Gerstman, of Buffalo, NY. They married and moved to Buffalo. After the war, they had four children. Evie began working as a substitute school teacher when her youngest child began school. She had extensive volunteer service to her community. Chief among them were her roles in the Sisterhood of Temple Beth Zion. She eventually became President and continued to organize events for the Sisterhood long after her years as President were over. After 23 years of marriage, Hubert and Evelyn divorced. Professionally, Evelyn began at SUNY at Buffalo as Assistant to a Dean and two Provosts. She later worked for Buffalo General Hospital Community Mental Health Center as an Administrative Coordinator. While at this position, she also earned her Masters Degree in Mental Health Administration. After 3 years on a Commission for Accreditation of Hospitals for the NYS Department of Mental Hygiene, she rose to Program Analyst and Program Specialist for the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities at its central office in Albany, NY. These were full-time positions, and yet she continued to do volunteer activity for a statewide nonprofit for the developmentally disabled. Evelyn played golf until she was 85; tennis until 90! She enjoyed water aerobic exercise at WindsorMeade three times a week until she was 93. Evie loved art and visited most of the great art museums in the world on 19 overseas trips she took with the Elderhostel/Road Scholar organization from 65-85 years old. She began doing sculpture by hand in her late childhood and continued to study and create large sculptures, many of beautiful women. But most of all she loved her 2 grandchildren and any time she could spend with them. She took each of them to Europe for middle school graduation presents. She longed to know how their lives would turn out, now that they were successful professionals in their 30’s. Survivors include her four children, Daniel Gerstman (Sharon Stern) of Buffalo, NY, Regina Gerstman of Williamsburg, VA, Leslie Gerstman of St. Paul, MN, Aaron Gerstman (Jill Perry) of Raleigh, NC; and her two grandchildren, Sarah Hooker of Oakland, CA, and Ari Gerstman (Val Baron) of Washington, D.C. She recently welcomed a great granddaughter, Devorah Rae Baron Gerstman. A service for her WindsorMeade community will be held on Saturday, July 20, 2019 at 3:00 pm, with a reception to follow. A family celebration of life will be held at a later date. Please make donations to Temple Beth Zion, 700 Sweet Home Rd, Amherst, NY 14226, (www.tbz.org) and to FISH, Inc., 312 Waller Mill Road, #800, Williamsburg, Virginia 23185, (https://williamsburgfish.weebly.com/donate.html). Online condolences may be shared at www.nelsenwilliamsburg.com.