Daniel Victor Goodstein

Daniel Victor Goodstein, whose zeal for life, family, and community was evident until the end, died at home in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025 at the age of 92. Only months before, he drove five hours to Mammoth Mountain and took one last ski run.

He is survived by his companion, Florence Hendler; daughter, Laurie Goodstein and her husband, Peter Grand; son, Jon Goodstein and his partner, Alena Deerwater; son Gary Goodstein and his wife, Andrea Goodstein; grandchildren, Gabriel Grand and his wife Nora, Ruben Grand, Grant Goodstein and Sarah Goodstein; and twin sister, Claire Gering. His older sister, Judith Kleitman, died in 1984.

Dan grew up in Newark and Millburn, New Jersey, the son of Jacob and Evelyn Goodstein. He was a teenage sportswriter for local news outlets and filed game scores to The New York Times. He graduated from Hamilton College, where he was captain of an undefeated tennis team, and got his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

He then attended the Coast Guard Academy in New London, where he met Joan Waxgiser, a student at Connecticut College, across the road. He served as a Lieutenant on the cutter Mackinac, and as a JAG officer.

He married Joan in 1958, became an accountant, and settled in New Rochelle, New York to raise three children. They moved to Los Angeles in 1968 when Dan helped to open a new office for S.D. Leidesdorf & Company, one of the Big Eight accounting firms. After the firm merged repeatedly, he helped run apparel and jewelry companies, and a historic hotel-casino in Reno.

He took artful photographs traveling across five continents, driven by his curiosity, humor and eye for detail. An avid golfer and longtime member of Hillcrest Country Club, he was known to score lower than his age. On the slopes, he delighted in racing past his children and grandchildren.

He volunteered as a tutor for struggling elementary school students and nurtured non-profits with the Executive Service Corps. He served on boards of the California Society of CPA’s, the Bella Lewitsky Dance Foundation, Jewish Homes for the Aged, and the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.

His first marriage ended after 25 years; a remarriage, to Joyce Goodstein, ended in divorce after 30 years.

He often said that his latter years were his happiest. He reconnected with Florence, a flame from decades earlier, and they enjoyed ten years of friendship, love, laughter, and travel. They walked several miles daily with a group of neighbors, and organized streetside cocktail hours during the COVID pandemic. Dan belonged to The PLATO Society (Peer Led Adults Teaching Ourselves) for more than two decades, and participated in Ideas INK, a bi-partisan discussion group.

Until he recently fell sick from cancer and organ failure, every Sunday he joined a small group of friends who tried, he said, to “solve the world’s problems” over brunch.

Contributions in his name can be made to Jewish Family Services L.A.