Abraham Landzberg
Abraham (also called Abe or Al) Landzberg passed away peacefully of natural causes while in his sleep on July 1 in his Yorktown Heights home with his children by his side. He was 90.
Landzberg was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 10, 1929, to Sol and Anna Landzberg. In 1935, the family moved to an apartment on Grand Avenue in the Bronx over the liquor store that Sol and Anna had purchased. The family attended the 1939 World’s Fair where young Al was enthralled with the GM Pavilion’s Future City and was inspired to then create a set of bookends with the Trylon and Perisphere motif.
He subsequently became interested in engineering and was fascinated by the bridges, tunnels and skyscrapers of New York City. He was accepted to NYU and decided to major in mechanical engineering. Al was a member of the NYU Glee Club, which performed at Carnegie Hall. His summer jobs during college included working in a sheet metal shop, as a mechanical designer and as a busboy and waiter at hotels in the Catskills. He received his master’s degree from Princeton University in mechanical engineering where his thesis was on the use of “differential equations to solve problems of relative motion.” Landzberg was hired by General Electric in Schenectady upon graduation.
Al met Joan Magliacano in the spring of 1951 at a “hootenanny” in lower Manhattan where Pete Seeger sang and led in folk singing and square dancing. He was smitten with Joan who checked all of his boxes, later saying that she was “attractive, dark-haired, well-spoken, smart, progressive, witty and shorter than I was.” After what he described as a “tempestuous relationship,” family contrivances brought them together to become engaged in the spring of 1955. They married weeks later on June 26, 1955, at the Broadway Central Hotel in Manhattan.
After accepting a job at IBM’s research lab in Yorktown in early 1959, the couple first moved to Peekskill and subsequently to the home they built in Yorktown Heights, where Landzberg lived for the remainder of his life. He worked at IBM for 30 years, and upon retirement he edited the Microelectronics Manufacturing Diagnostics Handbook, which is relevant to this day (and still available on Amazon.com).
In the 1970s, Al became interested in metal sculpture after seeing the work of German blacksmith Herman Schwagereit, who subsequently taught Al about metal work and forging techniques. He became an accomplished metal sculptor, learning arc, stick and MIG welding and acquiring a huge variety of tools to outfit his backyard studio.
For many years, Landzberg mentored Hendrick Hudson High School students in the art of welding and metal work. He produced more than 100 sculptures, which often reflect the inspiring beauty of the Hudson Valley. Many of those can be viewed at http://www.sculpturelandzbergstudio.com. He donated sculptures to the Town of Yorktown (on the Community Center field) and the City of Peekskill outside The Factoria at Charles Point.
Landzberg was a lifelong learner who was constantly coming up with new projects including a nonprofit-managed “environmental education pier” proposal for Lower Manhattan (http://riversalivenyc.org/) and inventions such as a raccoon-proof garbage can holder and a telescoping hedge trimmer. In the days prior to his death, Al was talking about and very interested in promoting the possibilities of using hemp to create plastic materials.
Landzberg was predeceased by his wife, Joan, who passed in 2015. He is survived by his brother, Morris, of Pembroke Pines, Fla. (who gave Al the nickname Bummy as a child); his three loving children, Judi Friedman of Pleasantville, Carol (Chuck) Newman of Yorktown Heights and Steven (Debbie) Landzberg of Waccabuc; and seven loving grandchildren, Spencer and Oliver Friedman, Lily (Jon Weinberg) and Sara Newman and Justin, Charlotte and Lucy Landzberg.
Due to COVID-19, the family will conduct a graveside service on Friday at the First Hebrew Congregation cemetery. No Shiva will be held. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in his memory to the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater at www.clearwater.org or to a charity of your choice.
