Goldin fought in World War II, led Belmar co-op for years

Jack Goldin, a longtime president of the Belmar co-op who served as a pilot during World War II, died on March 11. He was 97. A family member said he died of natural causes.

Mr. Goldin moved to Riverdale with his family in 1971, becoming the board president of the Belmar, located at 525 W. 236th St. His daughter said he held the post until he was 90 and eventually moved to the Atria Riverdale assisted living home.

Steven Benardo, who was president of the Association of Riverdale Cooperatives and Condominiums during part of Mr. Goldin’s tenure at the Belmar, remembered his colleague as an exceptional leader.

“That building ran like a submarine. Everything was exactly the way it ought to be,” Mr. Benardo said. “He was a wonderful manager, but beyond that, he understood that you can be consistent without being a robot. And that’s hard, to make sure you treat everyone fairly and also use discretion when it makes sense.”

Mr. Benardo added that his own late father, also a World War II veteran, was friends with Mr. Goldin while the two were living at the Atria on Henry Hudson Parkway.

“He and my father got along famously,” Mr. Benardo said of Mr. Goldin. “They weren’t in the same division, but I know what they did discuss was they wanted to make sure their children did not have to participate in war again.”

Like many members of their generation, Mr. Goldin and his brother joined the military after the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. According to his daughter Robin Goldin Como, Mr. Goldin joined the Army Air Corps, the precursor to the Air Force, which stationed him at a base in Netal, Brazil for the duration of the war.

Before deploying, Mr. Goldin married his sweetheart, Beverly Nason, whom he had met while both were working at a summer camp called Camp Mol-jo-ha years earlier. He had been a waiter and she a counselor.

“A lot of men and women or even boys and girls back then were marrying their sweethearts before they went off to war,” said Ms. Goldin Como. “It was like that with them.”

While stationed in Netal, Mr. Goldin regularly made flights on a C-47 plane to transport supplies to theaters of war in Europe and North Africa. Ms. Goldin Como said her father loved flying, but did not discuss his service with anyone except his brother.

“He didn’t talk about it a lot, but he was proud of having served,” she said.

After the war ended in 1945, Mr. Goldin returned to his native Brooklyn and went into the family business, a sewing thread manufacturer based in Manhattan’s Garment District. He, a brother-in-law and a cousin by marriage successfully ran Goldin Thread Company for years, Mr. Goldin Como said.

Success for Mr. Goldin was preceded not only by World War II, but also the Great Depression. Born Jacob Goldin on April 18, 1918 in a family with four children, he lived through some of the country’s toughest times.  Still, he graduated from New Utrecht High School and Baruch College and finished a year of graduate school at New York University, according to Ms. Goldin Como.

She and Mr. Benardo said Mr. Goldin was known for his generous spirit.

“I think the thing that most people would say about him is he’s probably the nicest, most unselfish person you’ll ever meet. He would put everybody before himself,” Ms. Goldin Como said.

She added that he regularly attended Congregation Torah V’Chesed Nanash on West 239th Street and donated to Jewish and other causes.

“I just liked him as a human being. In Yiddish, you would call him a mensch,” Mr. Benardo said.

Mr. Goldin is survived by his sister Dottie Savit; daughter Robin Goldin Como and her husband Robert Como, of Wilton, Connecticut; grandsons Jonathan and Peter Como; and daughter Beth Goldin and her partner Carol Rubin, of Huntington, New York.

A service was held on Monday at Gutterman’s Funeral Home in Woodbury, New York. Mr. Goldin’s family is sitting shiva at the Riverdale Atria, located at 3718 Henry Hudson Parkway, on Thursday and Friday, March 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Ms. Goldin Como said donations in her father’s memory can be made to Honor Flight, which transports veterans to memorials in Washington, D.C., or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.