Funeral Details

Shirley A. Geismar of Niles, IL, formerly of New Brunswick, NJ, passed away on February 1, 2021 of complications of bladder cancer at the age of 91. Shirley (Cooperman) was born in 1929 to a working-class Jewish family in St. Paul, MN and married Ludwig Geismar in 1949. Shortly after marriage she and Ludwig moved to Jerusalem, Israel, as Zionists where they lived for five years. Returning to the US in 1956, she went on to earn her BA in English at Rutgers University in 1965, and later completed her Masters in Social Work. She worked for various agencies, including ACNJ – Association for Children of NJ, Neuro-psychiatric Institute of NJ in Princeton, and also worked for Medicaid as an inspector of nursing homes. As a writer and editor, she edited and collaborated on many of the publications of her husband, Ludwig, and other colleagues. Shirley was also a respected artist and painter who studied with Michael Madigan. Shirley is survived by her daughters Deborah (Len Koroski) and Aviva (Sandor Weiner), by her grandchildren Emma Greenman, Laura Koroski (Ben Roy), Daniel Koroski (Kayla), and Talya Weiner, and by her sisters Charlotte Oren and Rochelle Weisgurt. A third daughter, Layah died in 1998. Memorial Contributions may be made to Center for Popular Democracy, 449 Troutman Street, Suite A, Brooklyn, New York 11237, www.populardemocracy.org or American Cancer Society, PO Box 22478, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73123, www.cancer.org.

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