Obituary of Eugene Kramer

Eugene Kramer Eugene Kramer, of Rochester, New York, born on August 14, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, to the late Anna Kramer and the late Louis Kramer, passed away at age 89 on June 30, 2019. Eugene was married to Carol Kramer. He is survived by his son, David Kramer; daughter, Leslie Kramer (Justin Boyce); grandchild, Audrey Boyce; sister-in-law Janet Burke (Frank Burke) and friends, Julie Everitt, Lucian Waddell, Linda Howland, Marcia Marsh, Sid Rosenzweig, Richard Henshaw and Vic Vinkey. He had a brilliant mind and attended Stuyvesant High School and CCNY and completed a Masters Degree in Political Science at University of Chicago. He was working in transportation planning in Chicago where he met Carol. They later moved to Pittsburgh PA where their two children were born, and Eugene was working as a planner. His career took him next to Ann Arbor, Michigan and later back to Rochester where he worked for the New York State Urban Development Corporation and later as Executive Director of the Rochester Housing Council, before retiring in 1985. He was musical, and enjoyed playing trumpet and piano. He spent his teenage years hanging out at record stores in NYC, later developing an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz. Collecting records became a lifetime pursuit. Louis Armstrong was one of his favorite musicians.. He was friends with Don Ewell, a jazz pianist, and he wrote and published a biography of him. One of his best friends was Ray Murphy (now deceased) who also loved jazz. Ray, a professor at the U of R, was one of the group of friends who came to dinner every Sunday. He loved books and history, and was particularly interested in World War I. He joined the Rochester Bibliophile Society after he retired and volunteered for the Houghton Bookstore. Chess was also a passion and he played with family and friends, in tournaments, and more recently with computers. . He also loved sports, particularly baseball. He loved the Dodgers and later the Yankees and went to Rochester Red Wings games when he could. In his youth he mastered table tennis, and before his stroke he played weekly. He also loved watching classic films and he and Carol traveled to Europe many times. Like many Jewish intellectuals and secular humanists of his era, he had a passion for understanding the world, and always had a meaningful insight to share, sometimes funny, sometimes profound. He was a great writer and a great thinker. He passed along his lifelong love of learning to his children. He will also be remembered for his warm heart and great sense of humor.