Eleanor L. Goldman

Ellie was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Ida Berezin Levy and Jacob Levy. She was the loving and adored wife of Allan B. Goldman for 62 years; devoted mother to Jennifer Horwitz (Martin) and Andrea Gellert (James); doting grandmother to Matthew Horwitz, Adam Horwitz, Elizabeth Gellert and Zachary Gellert. She was predeceased by her parents and her siblings Carol Weinstock Willens (Earl) and David Levy (Wendy).

Ellie remembered fondly her many summer seasons as a camper and Junior Counselor at Camp Pembroke on Cape Cod. She graduated from Brookline, Mass. High School in 1957, where she was Editor of the Murivian Yearbook. She began her journey in the world of art taking creative art classes at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Ellie received her B.A. Degree from Boston University in 1961, where she graduated with honors in Comparative Literature and served on the Student Council. Before her marriage to Allan at Temple Israel in Boston (where she was confirmed and taught Sunday School) on May 26, 1963, she worked at the American Arbitration Association and as an Executive Assistant to the Chair of the Government Department at Harvard University. Ellie met Allan at his sister Gloria's wedding on August 14, 1960. Their first mini-date was a month later at a viewing party for the first Kennedy-Nixon Debate at Gloria's apartment in Cambridge, Mass. The day after their marriage, Ellie and Allan began their drive across country to begin life in Los Angeles.

Before Jennifer was born in 1966, Ellie worked at Welton Becket & Associates, the architectural firm that was leading the construction of the Los Angeles Music Center and Century City. She also was employed by E.F. Hutton & Co. After Andrea was born in 1968, she began a PHD program in anthropology at UCLA, earning straight As, but reluctantly gave up that potential career because she did not want to leave her family for the lengthy field trips that would be required. So she shifted to UCLA's Interior Design program, earning her degree again with straight As. Ellie then worked a number of years in commercial interior design with architectural firms that designed hospitals and then with Gensler designing the interiors of office buildings.

Ellie found great meaning in community service. She started with the Beverly Hills League of Women Voters, while at the same time she was an officer of the UCLA Art Council. For many years she was a Board member of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles and headed its legislation and lobbying efforts. She was an officer of Center Theater Group Associates and reluctantly declined its Presidency because of her deep commitment to the Projects Council of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) where she served a term as its President and chaired a number of its important functions for many years. At Leo Baeck Temple Ellie was a member of the Board of Trustees and Recording Secretary. For four years she served as a member of the Board of Governors of the California State Community College System.

From 1984 to 1997, Ellie somehow found the time to run Rancho Maceta de Oro, the 20 acre ranch the Goldmans owned with the late Martha Murphy Crockwell and Craig Crockwell in Santa Ynez. She enjoyed riding her horses across the countryside. In its thoroughbred breeding activities, Ellie was the expert in conformation, as she visited the great Kentucky horse farms and attended the Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton sales. After the ranch was sold, much time was devoted to world travel, and Ellie visited all 7 continents and 140 countries. Her artistic sense led her to be our photographer, and she filled over 100 scrapbooks with her Nikon-made pictures. In addition to this photography, and after the oil paintings of her youth, Ellie spent several years studying at Santa Monica College, sculpting in alabaster with her pneumatic tools. In her later years she shifted to water colors including pictures of her grandchildren. She was a collector of contemporary art and of masks created by the various peoples visited on her travels.

For 50 years, 6 mornings a week, Ellie could be found at a gym, exercising and keeping in tremendous shape. She even joined Allan on the tennis courts, winning several mixed doubles titles. Her conditioning was such that she easily trekked in most of the mountain ranges of the world, including the Himalayas of Nepal, Bhutan, the Andes of Peru, the Alps and Dolomites, and in her 70s peaked in Ethiopia the 4th highest mountain in Africa.

Ellie loved animals and they loved her: her golden retrievers Bess and Mac and especially her Samoyed Nikolai; a macaw in Barbados that wanted her to take it with her as we departed its sanctuary; an orangatan baby in Borneo that cuddled with her for a long time; the lemur in Madagascar that fell asleep on her head; and the Silverback mountain gorilla baby in Rwanda riding its mother's back and sticking out its tongue that she captured in a Xmas card photograph.

Many remarked over the years about Ellie's natural physical beauty, but although she liked beautiful things and wore beautiful clothes, she never considered herself in that context. Ellie believed that your actions and deeds, not what you said or how you looked, told the story of who you were.

Those wishing to remember Ellie may make donations to Leo Baeck Temple, MOCA, or to a charity of their choice.