Raymond David Holtzman

Raymond David Holtzman, of Maynard, Massachusetts, formerly of New York, passed away on Saturday, October 5, 2024, at 77.

Born in Bronx, New York, on April 30, 1947, he was the son of the late Irving and Mildred (Schatz) Holtzman and grandson of the late Benjamin and Yetta Holtzman and Isadore and Rose Schatz. 

Ray was raised in a deeply loving, tight-knit Jewish family in the Bronx. He grew up learning his grandparents’ first languages. He spent summers with his extended family at Zapol’s bungalow colony, where he enjoyed childhood camp adventures that he recalled in vivid detail even seventy years later. He graduated from the Stuyvesant High School for gifted students and from City College of New York. He married Mary Ellen (Galland) and settled in Suffern, New York, where he proudly raised daughters Meghan and Lindsay. There, Ray discovered his love for spiritual and interfaith learning and became a member of the Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Ray was embraced by the Presentation family and cherished these years of worship, gatherings, and outings with a special group of families he held dear.

Ray had a long career in the publishing industry. He was a loyal manager at Prentice-Hall/Pearson until he moved to upstate New York, acquiring and managing the East Chatham-based Slattery’s Country Store with his family. While there, Ray also served his community as a teacher at the Berkshire Farms School and as a fire department volunteer.

Amidst his achievements, Ray would tell you that his most important purpose was to love family, friends, and community. In addition to his relentless dedication to his daughters and reverence for family, he forged meaningful, lasting relationships, including with David Pepper, his childhood best friend who became and remained a brother to him for sixty-seven years. 

During his retirement, Ray enjoyed visiting with family and friends, doting even more on his beloved dogs, having spirited conversations about politics and justice with anyone who was willing, and relatedly, curating his vibrant Twitter account of over 800 followers. Most importantly, Ray was a friend to everyone he encountered. He believed in making each person feel welcome. Ray was adored for his kindness, care, perseverance, and strong spirituality. He greeted everyone he met with a smile “because you never know what kind of day the person next to you could be having and how you could make a small difference.”

Moreover, Ray always looked for ways to help people and animals, no matter what he himself was going through. He could not bear to stand by the pain of others, which he felt genuinely. He would put himself last to support family and others and overcame his own obstacles with immense and admirable strength. Ray was wholeheartedly driven by his faith and passionate belief that we are all here to make the world a better place. 

Ray is survived by his daughters Meghan and Lindsay Holtzman, their partners Jarrod Reich and James Jarvis, and his brother Kenneth Holtzman. He was a proud and loving Granddad to puppies Zeus, Ralph, and Marvin, who could always be found napping on his lap and sitting at his feet. He was blessed with family, friends, and community members who loved and supported him, including Mary Ellen Holtzman, Pam and Dennis Collins, Kristen Kelly, Cecilia Plum, his Holtzman/Schatz cousins, his Church of the Presentation family, and all who he deeply adored.

Family and friends will gather to honor and remember Ray at his interfaith funeral mass on Monday, October 14, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at the Church of the Presentation, 271 West Saddle River Road, Upper Saddle, New Jersey. All are welcome. Burial will be private.

To view services remotely, please visit the link below shortly before the scheduled service time:
https://www.churchofpresentation.org/funeral-ministry 

Donations to missions he cared about may be made in his memory to: the New York Civil Liberties Union https://www.nyclu.org, Out of the Pits https://outofthepits.org, NAMI – National Alliance on Mental Illness https://www.nami.org, and Fountain House https://www.fountainhouse.org.

Arrangements are under the care of Concord Funeral Home, 74 Belknap Street, Concord, MA 01742  978-369-3388 www.concordfuneral.com