The maritime community has lost a great friend, shipmate, and leader in the passing of Howard Slotnick. A treasurer and chairman emeritus of National Maritime Historical Society, he served on the Coast Guard Foundation board and was an advisor to Tall Ships America. He also served on the board of trustees of Amistad America, and was an honorary trustee of South Street Seaport.
Here is a remembrance of Howard Slotnick by Roberta Weisbrod:
Howard Slotnick lived fully his ninety years. His joie de vivre and and love of the sea were one and the same. He expressed his devotion in myriad ways that have influenced the lives of New Yorkers, the spirit of our nation, and even the way the world appreciates maritime history and the waterfront.
He liked to move, rode horses when young, began sailing at a young age, and started as an auto leasing business. When one day he was in the South Street Seaport area and Peter Stanford was hawking memberships for only a dollar, with self-deprecating humor Howard said “What could he lose”, and joined. The rest was history. He was the behind the scenes support of Peter and Norma Stanford’s ideas for the regeneration of the maritime life of the city – and with his financial and organizational acumen helped make things happen. This was a role he would play again and again through his life, and would still.
He helped make OpSail happen – a huge organizational and financial task. I remember telling him how important the first OpSail 1976 was to me and my family. America then in a darkish time, a slough when things tended not to get done, strangling inflation, assassinations of leaders were in recent memory, civil rights were being fitfully addressed. A time of malaise, almost despair. We sat on the hill of Ft Hamilton I told him and when the ships came into view, sails ballooning, sailors standing on deck, the thrill was universal – and was an inspiration to all of us –to begin to do something, to make things happen.
So many civic maritime campaigns. I got to meet him through Clay Maitland’s Coast Guard Foundation – two people from backwater parts of Brooklyn, not far from the immigrant experience. His last and best berth, was the National Maritime Historic Society (NMHS, another Peter Stanford initiative) where he was on the Executive Board, with the portfolio in Finance. Again his organizational ability, financial acumen, and general expertise was important to keeping the organization going. He had great pleasure from the organization – the annual meetings to various historic ports – like Salem and Erie (War of 1812), and his visits to the U.S. Eagle. As part of NMHS he got to experience the thrill of a trip to Normandy with CEO Burchie Green and special meetings with people and places associated with the European theater of the War. The maritime world’s beloved Admiral Papp was his great friend.
His life was cut short. I saw him a few months ago at the memorial service for Jack Putnam. We had lunch together. There had been sadness in his life, his loss of his wife and then his sister. But at that time things were good. His beloved daughter Sharon found her life’s mate and married. And he had a wonderful girlfriend who shared his love of travel – and who said, “Don’t bother to ask me about a trip – just book”, which I sensed was music to his ears. I never saw him as an old man – just a person whose love of the sea, the people who sailed it, and the history of people in a milieu beyond the ken of a landlubber – I saw the person of robust face and eyes that seemed to reflect the sea on a beautiful day. He was taken too soon.
NMHS just released a video by Richard Lopes of Howard’s life:
Fiddler’s Green, Howard Slotnick (1930-2020)
See also: Howard Slotnick (1930-2020)