November, 1995 Archive

Jan Marx: Eulogy for Henry Marx

Saturday, November 11th, 1995
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Louise Marx: Eulogy for Henry Marx

Saturday, November 11th, 1995

Memorial for Henry Marx November 11 1995

Saturday, November 11th, 1995
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Eulogy for Henry Marx

Saturday, November 11th, 1995

Welcome and thanks for coming today, on behalf of Lise, Henry’s wife, Jan his daughter in law, Joe and Claire, his grandchildren. I’m Steven, his son.

We’ve been amazed by the magnitude of the public tribute to him and the outpouring of sympathy and appreciation–from Denver, where he lived for fifteen years before moving to San Luis Obispo, from New York, from all around the world.

He was a little guy with a large presence; Paula Huston said to me the other day that he’ll be missed by the whole county. Another colleague, Barbara Hallman came up to me yesterday to express condolence with tears in her eyes. I asked her how she knew him. “His letters to the paper, I’ll miss them,” she said.
Grief makes you want to retreat and hide to nurse your wound. Its hard to share with so many people in so public a way.The good and pure memories we want to hoard, the jealous and critical feelings we want to hide, and the stupefying mystery of death itself we want to deny.

But Jan and Lise and I nevertheless decided on the day he died to hold this gathering. For the immediate family, it’s a way to distribute the pain, it’s asking for your comfort, it’s an antidote for our tendency to withdraw into isolation

For all of us, its a chance to make up for some of the loss we feel to our community by pooling our regard for Henry and building a lasting monument to him in our memories.

The reason we’re in the Y today is not only because of the graciousness of the managment and the fact that it has a large room and lots of parking space. Henry used to say that going to senior aerobics at the Y twice a week was his religion. He was only half joking.

Since his adolescent involvement with the German youth movement, he believed in worshipping the temple of the body. Fitness was his credo. He treasured his health, and he saw that maintaining it was his own business. Working out here made him feel good and counteracted his tendencies toward depression about current events. The idea of senior aerobics fit his attitude toward old age and the approach of death in general–affirming what you still have, rather than regretting what you’ve lost.

The first tolling of his bell occurred here. Heading home for lunch after his workout on May fifth, he drove out of the parking lot, down Southwood, Laurel Lane and Orcut to the intersection and then made a left turn instead of a right on Broad street. An hour later, the Park Rangers found him disoriented, spinning his wheels near the ocean in the Nipomo dunes.

After they brought him home, he had a series of seizures, but with medication and a couple of weeks rest, he was recovered enough to be back in this room on a regular schedule, and in July, he insisted that I join him one day to exercize and to meet his friends.

I came back here with Henry in mid October. Two weeks after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, he was staying in the Cabrillo nursing home, a block away, on Augusta Street. It was a warm afternoon and I took him out in a wheelchair to the nearest place one could appreciate the air and see some green. It was the park right outside. We sat together in the shade of the Eucalyptus trees and talked about native and imported plant species, about medicare, about the privilege of living in this town. It was our last sustained conversation, the last time he was out of bed.

I felt blessed to be able to take many farewells from my father during his monthlong departure from this world. One of the most memorable occurred when he talked about his grandparents, and how their presence was so strong with him during those last days. Then he cried bitterly and said he didnt want to die. Without thinking, I replied that he would remain, just as his grandparents existed in him at that very moment. He nodded and pulled me to him. With all of us here now I say, goodbye Henry, and I say you are still here in the memories and the legacy of the good you leave behind.

Obituary for Henry Marx April 19 1906-October 31 1995

Sunday, November 5th, 1995

Henry Marx, 88, of San Luis Obispo, died Tuesday October 31 at a San Luis Obispo Care Center. A memorial gathering will be held at the YMCA Fitness Facility, 1020 Southwood Drive, San Luis Obispo, at 3:00 P.M. Saturday November 11.

Mr. Marx was born in Strassburg Germany, April 19, 1907. He was an enthusiastic participant in the Kameraden, a youth organization dedicated to the appreciation of nature and the arts, to ethical idealism, and to humanitarian service. He married Lise, his wife for 63 years, in Stuttgart Germany in 1932. In 1937, to flee Nazi persecution, they emigrated to New York City, where he worked in business until retirement at age 65. He and Lise then moved to Denver Colorado, where they enjoyed skiing and hiking. In 1989 they settled in San Luis Obispo to reside near the family of their only child.

Mr. Marx was a committed community volunteer throughout his life. In New York he was active in the Democratic party, neighborhood synagogue and Sane Nuclear Policy organizations. In Denver he served as president of the Jewish Community Center, as an officer in the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, and as a tireless visitor to elementary schools, where he presented slide shows about places around the world he had visited. His efforts were recognized with a Senior of the Year award, a Community Volunteer award, and an Americans by Choice award.

In San Luis Obispo, Mr. Marx continued his volunteer work into his late eighties. He gave talks and slide shows in high schools, junior highs and at Cal Poly in order to pass on his experiences as a witness to the Nazi Holocaust as a reminder and a warning to the younger generation. He was a Hadassah associate and a docent at the Arts Center. Mr. Marx’s hobbies also produced contributions of energy to community organizations. He was a member of the YMCA Senior Aerobics Club and the Art Center’s Thursday Painters Group.

Mr. Marx is survived by his wife, Lise, his son, Steven, and daughter-in-law, Jan Howell Marx, and his grandchildren, Joe Montgomery Marx and Claire-Elise Grace Marx.