In Response to: Recent Alumni Deaths

My father, Bruce, died peacefully in his apartment in Manhattan on Nov. 12, 2018. He had lived there since 1965.

Bruce was born May 12, 1928, in New York City and grew up in Hewlett, Long Island, where he graduated from Woodmere High School. At Princeton, he played the clarinet in the Princeton marching band and was an accomplished pianist. He graduated cum laude from the Department of Music and joined his father’s construction firm as a general contractor in New York City. He bid the contracts and oversaw construction of the post offices in Columbus, Ohio, and Oakland, Calif.; Air Force housing in Plattsburgh, N.Y.; the Ohio State Penitentiary in Lucasville, Ohio; an addition to Riverside Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; and numerous public housing projects in New York City.

In 1958 he met María Epstein from Mexico City on a blind date and married her three months later. They spent their lives together, traveling throughout the world, until she passed away in 2015.

In 2008, Bruce walked by a construction site on East 51st St. and became concerned that the crane in use had been improperly braced. During his career, he had built enough buildings to rank as an expert in such matters. He filed a complaint with the building commission. One of the inspectors went out to the job site, as required, but didn’t take any action. A few days later, Bruce heard an awful crash while in his apartment on 49th street, a quarter of a mile away. The crane had broken, fallen, and killed seven people. Had his complaint been taken seriously, these lives could have been saved.

Bruce was an avid supporter of the New York Philharmonic and maintained his annual subscription from 1951 until this year. He was also a devoted supporter of Princeton, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Turtle Bay Association, and the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Bruce is survived by his son, Enrique, and his two grandsons, Michael and Kevin.

Enrique Silberblatt ’74
Roanoke, Va.