Jacob Weinman

Jack Weinman, 98, died on April 4, 2017, at the New York State Veterans’ Home in Oxford.

Jack was the President of the Norwich Shoe Company from its founding in 1946
until its closing in 1991. Born in the Bronx, New York, Jack was the son of Rae (Kaplowitz) and Bernard Weinman. Jack was raised in Flushing, Queens, with his brother Abe and sister Thelma. He graduated from Dickinson College with a major in German.

Jack served in the United States Army from 1942 until 1946. After basic training, he was part of a pilot Russian language program at Cornell and, with Germany’s defeat, was sent to Heinrich Himmler’s home on the Rhine to translate documents.

Jack arrived in Norwich in 1946, scouting locations for a new branch of the family business, a shoe factory in Long Island City. In the years after the founding of the shoe company, Jack oversaw three operating factories in the Norwich area.

During his life in Norwich, Jack was president of Norwich Rotary Club, the Norwich Jewish Center, the Norwich Planning Commission. He also served on the boards of the Greater Norwich Foundation, the Otis Thompson Foundation, and NBT Bank.

In 1947, Jack married Shirley Bloom, of Brooklyn. Shirley died in 1998. Jack’s daughter, Beth Weinman Gregrich, also preceded him in death in 2012. He is survived by his daughters Linda Weinman Braun and her husband, Robert, Robin Weinman Newland, and her husband, Van, and Marjorie Weinman, and her husband, Mitchell Breit; and his grandchildren Rebecca, Ben, Sam, Maisie, and Gemma.

The family will be holding a private graveside service in Elmont, NY. A gathering will be held in Jack’s honor on a date to be announced.

Contributions in Jack’s memory may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104 or Family Planning of South Central New York, 5 Cortland St., Norwich, NY 13815, or to a charity of your choice.