Obituary of Eugene Ben Gluck

Eugene Ben Gluck, 90, of Boca Raton, Florida, and West Concord, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully on October 25, 2019, at the Care Dimensions Hospice House in Lincoln, Massachusetts, after a short illness.

 

The son of Leon and Zelda Gluck, Russian immigrants who came to the United States in the 1920s, Gene was raised in Manhattan, where he worked in his family's neighborhood grocery store, and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School. He served in the Army during the Korean War and was stationed on the island of Okinawa. After returning to New York, he earned a Bachelor's Degree in business from the City College of New York and in 1955 became a store manager at Bloomingdale's department store, where he met his future wife, Elizabeth "Betsy" Gluck (then Elizabeth Singer). The couple was married in 1957 and in 1959 moved to Betsy's hometown of Amsterdam, New York, where they raised four children: Jennifer, Bettina, Andrew, and Jonathan. Gene worked at the Amsterdam Printing Company, a business founded by Betsy’s father, for 21 years, eventually holding the title of vice-president of marketing. Following that job, he and a business partner launched Wilderness Camping magazine, which they later sold to the Ziff-Davis company. In the1970s, Gene was elected president of the Amsterdam School District Board of Education; his effort to build a new high school for the town was one of his proudest achievements. He also served as a county coordinator for Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. In 1980, the family moved to suburban Boston, where Gene worked for New England Business Services, then started his own direct-marketing consulting firm, Roll-Out Marketing.

 

As considerable as Gene’s professional and civic accomplishments were, nothing meant more to him than his family and friends. He was a devoted and loving husband to Betsy (the couple was married for 62 years) and spent countless hours playing catch or shooting baskets with his children and grandchildren and attending their games, plays, recitals, camp visiting days, and high-school and college graduations. He was at his happiest spending time with the people he loved. He was an avid golfer, who at one point was a single-digit handicapper. He loved to read and talk about books, particularly books about history and politics. He knew hundreds of jokes and was quick to share them. He was patient, positive, and friendly to all people. It was often said that no one ever had a bad word to say about him. Above all else, he was kind.

 

In addition to Betsy and his children, Gene is survived by his brother, Milton Gluck, of New York, New York, his sister, Rena Gluck, of Tel Aviv, Israel, his son-in-law, Paul Henderson, of Boston, Massachusetts, his daughter-in-law, Kimberly Gluck, also of Boston, his daughter-in-law, Diane Gluck, of New York, New York, and his nine grandchildren, Benjamin (David) Tinker, Matthew (Annakate) Tinker, Stephanie (Austin) Dobson, William Henderson, Emma Henderson, Samantha Gluck, Joshua Gluck, Abigail Gluck, and Oscar Gluck.

 

Charitable donations in Gene's name may be made to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, P.O. Box 414238, Boston, MA, 02241; themmrf.org

 

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Betz, Rossi & Bellinger Family Funeral Home, 171 Guy Park Avenue, Amsterdam.  Please visit the online memorial at www.brbsfuneral.com

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