William Goldstein (1936-2020)
Educator loved the artistry, challenge of woodworking.
By Mark Zaborney / The Blade
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 05:00:00 GMT
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William Goldstein, an artist, artisan, and teacher of industrial arts, died Monday at Kingston Residence of Sylvania. He was 83.
He had Parkinson’s disease. He and his wife, Marge, moved to Kingston about two years ago.
He retired from Rogers High School in 2000. As a Romeo among Romeos, he enjoyed the companionship until last summer of the weekly lunch group, Retired Old Men Eating Out.
A skilled woodworker, he was called on to fashion wooden altars, pulpits, and candlestick holders for congregations, Christian and Jewish, in the Toledo area.
Mr. Goldstein, formerly of Springfield Township, became a teacher on the advice of a would-be employer in California, where he and his young family had moved. The would-be employer noted his degree in industrial design technology from the University of Cincinnati.
“‘You have a lot of talent, but I’m not sure you have enough of the right kind,’” his wife recalled. “Bill was crushed.”
That would-be employer suggested Mr. Goldstein consider teaching, noting his work directing children in Toledo Repertoire Theatre productions.
Mr. Goldstein began his career in the 1960s, as he closed it, by teaching industrial arts, including drafting and wood shop, at Rogers. He also taught industrial arts at the former Spencer Sharples High School and art at Maumee Junior High School. He directed wood-shop students in complex projects — furniture, clocks, butterflies.
“They would come back on their study hall time or after school, and he would work with them in the shop,” said his wife, who was a special education teacher at Rogers and at McTigue Junior High.
With his students, “he would come off as a tough guy,” his daughter, Rochelle Barchick, said. “He really was a softy.”
He also coached basketball and had players over for dinner or took them to a movie, “to instill in them, life is good and embrace it.” When a student’s family needed groceries, he helped out, quietly.
He advised players on ways to further their education, maybe at a small college, maybe through military service. For others, “by teaching them woodworking, he was giving them a trade, so they could possibly make it out there,” his daughter said.
Students, years after graduation, stopped by the house to visit.
Mr. Goldstein in his own wood shop made kaleidoscopes and china cabinets and dressers — each with a secret compartment — for his children. From two-dimensional pictures, he made wooden miniatures of vintage automobiles.
“He loved to challenge himself in woodworking, the challenge of it, figuring it out,” his daughter said.
He was born Feb. 14, 1936, to Ann and Alvin Goldstein and grew up in the Old West End. A Toledo Museum of Art visitor from childhood, he was a 1954 graduate of the former Macomber Vocational High School.
He and his wife took summer cross-country vacations and traveled the world. He’d take out his sketchbook and drew whatever caught his eye — scenes, buildings, people.
“He would see things the rest of us didn’t see when we looked at the same things,” his wife said.
At the Louvre, on a bench near the Mona Lisa, his wife found him weeping.
“‘I’ve loved her all my life, but I never thought I’d meet her,’” his wife recalled him saying.
Surviving are his wife, the former Marge Franks, whom he married July 30, 1961; sons Sheldon, Benjamin, and Marshall Goldstein; daughter, Rochelle Barchick; brother, Harold Goldstein, and nine grandchildren.
Funeral services will be begin at noon Thursday at The Temple-Congregation Temple Shomer Emunim, Sylvania Township, where he was a member. Arrangements are by the Robert H. Wick/​Wisniewski Funeral Home.
The family suggests tributes to The Temple WRJ Campership Fund or Ohio Living Hospice.