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Larry Lipman - Class of 1965

Submitted by Judith Lipman Epstein 1972 <Jude914@aol.com> on 10/Oct/2022
73.56.0.92

      Lawrence W. Lipman Local attorney, businessman, inveterate world traveler, 40-year resident of Glen Rock and longtime volunteer leader of Jewish communal organizations, died August 6, 2022. He was 75 years old. The Lipmans lived in Wellington, FL.

Mr. Lipman was born on July 16, 1947 in Newburgh, New York, the eldest son of Dr. Everett S. Lipman, a leading dentist in Newburgh, and the former Helen E. Bikales, a homemaker and the longtime office manager of the McQuade Home for Children, in New Windsor, NY. Mr. Lipman was educated in the public schools of Newburgh, attending for a time, two separate, one-teacher, multi-grade, one-room elementary schoolhouses in the rural districts, respectively, of Orange Lake, NY, and Gardnertown, NY. He graduated in 1965 from Newburgh Free Academy public high school and in 1969 from the University of Rochester with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science. He was a brother of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. His college expenses were partly paid with earnings from his pizza delivery route, his several summer lifeguard jobs and his weekend gig as a musician in a rock band, which latter activity he continued well into his 60’s. Over the years he played guitar and bass (and sang when he was allowed) with such bands as the Travelers Four, the Six Pack, the New York Tymes, the Conflix Band, and the Templetones, among others. He earned his elementary school teaching credentials in 1969 at Mt. St. Mary’s College in Newburgh and, after teaching elementary school in Rochester, NY, attended Syracuse University College of Law, earning a Juris Doctor degree in 1973.

Mr. Lipman married Ronnee Ellen Press of West Orange, NJ on June 21, 1970 after a 4-year courtship at the University of Rochester where both attended college. The couple often told the story of their first meeting at a university dinner in September of 1966 where Mr. Lipman was acting as the server for Ms. Lipman's dinner table during her first week on campus. He was wearing new penny loafers without socks, as was then the style, and had developed heel blisters, so he removed his shoes and served the meal barefoot while joking about it. She was so impressed with this witty, barefoot waiter that she decided that evening that she would marry him, and phoned her mother to tell her so. He always said that it took him longer than anyone else to figure this out.

After Mr. Lipman graduated from law school, and Ms. Lipman earned her Master’s degree from Syracuse University's College of Education, the couple relocated to Parsippany, NJ where they lived until 1977 when they purchased their current home in Glen Rock, NJ. Except for several months in 1982-3 when they lived in a rented house in Glen Rock due to a devastating accidental house fire which necessitated virtually the complete rebuilding of their own house, the Lipman family has lived at the same Glen Rock location since 1977. Their two children were raised there: Matthew (Lisa), an attorney now a partner in a Philadelphia, PA law firm and living in Cherry Hill, NJ; and Andrea (Meredith), now a computer software executive in Cambridge, MA and living in Needham, MA.

Mr. Lipman passed the New Jersey Bar Examination in 1973 and immediately became engaged in the private practice of law in Northern New Jersey. He continued to do so for nearly the next 50 years, starting with the Totowa law firm of Marcus, Rosen, Breslow & Levy. In 1976 he became a partner in the Hudson County law firm of Kellner & Lipman, and in 1981 he became a partner with the Hackensack law firm of Gelber & Lipman. In 1982 he became a member of the Bar of the State of New York and also practiced law in Rockland County, NY for the next 20 years. He was the sole owner of his own law firm, located at various times in Hackensack, East Rutherford, Union City and, since 1987, in Fair Lawn, NJ. He worked primarily in the area of real estate, eventually becoming an expert in mortgage and foreclosure law. He often joked that he preferred real estate because it didn't talk back and he didn't have to wait for payment because he always was paid at the closing. He handled many hundreds of residential and commercial title closings, mortgage closings and foreclosures, more leases than he could count, and all sorts of other general practice matters including hundreds of wills and estates. For many years he was an AARP-designated attorney in the Fair Lawn area and wrote AARP's attorney handbook for use by their hundreds of cooperating attorneys. He was involved with the AARP program for so long that he was referred to as the "dean of AARP's New Jersey attorneys"�. He also developed a reputation for handling delicate contested estate litigation, often among warring family members. He was a pioneer in the integration of frequent customer programs, especially airline frequent flier programs, into the American economy and society. For over 25 years he shared his law offices in Fair Lawn with his friend and fellow attorney, Ronald P. Groseibl.

In additon to his law practice, Mr. Lipman spent more than 35 years as the principal shareholder and one of the managing officers and directors of the Garnerville Holding Company, Inc. in West Haverstraw, NY, which operates a large 19th-century industrial park owned by his family and others since 1933. There he handled rent collections, leasing and renewals for the 150 tenants, and oversaw construction and demolition projects, and also relations and negotiations with tenants, suppliers and governmental agencies. For many years before it was sold about 20 years ago, Mr. Lipman was also the CEO and largest shareholder of a second large industrial park in West Haverstraw, NY which had been owned by his family since 1946.

After his father died in 1992, Mr. Lipman, together with his younger brother, Donald (Janet) of New Windsor, NY, Pittsburgh, PA and Pompano Beach, FL; and younger sister, Judith (Jerry) of Fort Lauderdale, FL, provided the seed money and initial leadership for the establishment of the non-profit Lipman Family Dental Centers in Newburgh as a tribute and memorial to their parents. Their mother passed away in 2003. The Lipman Family Dental Centers opened a second Newburgh location in 2012 and more and more needy dental patients are served by its dedicated and highly professional staff each year. The dental centers have merged with the Cornerstone Health chain and have 18 locations in NY and PA. Additional dental clinics are currently being planned for other New York State locations, and a mobile dental office in a purpose-built and specially outfitted van was recently put into service in the Newburgh area as an outreach service of the Lipman Family Dental Centers.

After Mr. Lipman graduated from law school, and Ms. Lipman earned her Master's degree from Syracuse University's College of Education, the couple relocated to Parsippany, NJ where they lived until 1977 when they purchased their current home in Glen Rock, NJ. Except for several months in 1982-3 when they lived in a rented house in Glen Rock due to a devastating accidental house fire which necessitated virtually the complete rebuilding of their own house, the Lipman family has lived at the same Glen Rock location since 1977. Their two children were raised there: Matthew (Lisa), an attorney now a partner in a Philadelphia, PA law firm and living in Cherry Hill, NJ; and Andrea (Meredith), now a computer software executive in Cambridge, MA and living in Needham, MA.

Mr. Lipman is survived by his wife, his son, his daughter, and his siblings. Also surviving are his grandchildren, Bryce Lewis Lipman and Braden Alexander Lipman of Cherry Hill, NJ; and Sydney Adele Lipman, of Needham, MA, to all of whom he was known as "Pop"�, plus several nieces and nephews.

At the time of his death, Mr. Lipman was a member of the Honorary Board of Directors of Jewish Family and Children's Service of North Jersey after having served as its president, multiple terms as its vice president and more than 20 years as an active member of its Board of Directors. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Paterson Hebrew Free Loan Association for more than 10 years. He also served as Vice Chair and then as Chair of the Social Welfare Commission of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey for several years, and was a longtime member of its Central Planning and Allocations Committee. In conjunction with the latter, he had taken several international trips, including visits to Israel, Turkey, the Ukraine and the Republics of Georgia and Armenia, to view for himself and report back to the Federation regarding the use of funds contributed by the Northern New Jersey Jewish community for the benefit of various Jewish charitable agencies and social welfare projects abroad, especially those programs specifically providing hunger relief to needy Jews. In all, during his lifetime, Mr. Lipman traveled to approximately 65 foreign countries and more than 40 American states, and as early as the late-1980's was considered an expert in the earning, collection and use of frequent flier miles and other loyalty program points. He consulted with a wide variety of clients all over the country on this subject. For several years during the 1990's, Mr. Lipman wrote the "TIPS"� column in the Sunday Travel Section of the Bergen (NJ) Record newspaper about frequent flier miles: how to earn them and best use them for optimum travel results. For a long time, Mr. Lipman held the distinction of writing more travel reviews, forum posts, travel ratings and other entries on the website, www.TripAdvisor.com , than any other person in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, with over 12,500 entries published in total. He was always successful in obtaining free First or Business Class air tickets to whichever destination in the world he and Ronnee wanted to visit by using his instincts and knowledge of frequent flier programs, not to mention his frequent flier mileage, of which he and Ronnee always seemed to have plenty. They flew free in Business or First Class to literally several dozen intercontinental destinations in Africa, South and Central America, Asia and especially Europe. Likewise, he was very often able to arrange free hotel stays at Hiltons or Sheratons worldwide with his hotel points. An avid if imperfect golfer, Mr Lipman was a member of the Glen Eagles Country Club in Delray Beach, FL, and the Wycliffe Golf and Country Club in Wellington, FL, after having been a member of the Apple Ridge Country Club in Mahwah, NJ for 15 years before it closed in 2015, and the Ramsey Golf and Country Club after that. For a time in the 1990's, Mr. Lipman became active in the Democratic Party and ran as a candidate for the Glen Rock Borough Council in 1993. He did not win, but thereafter he was selected to represent Glen Rock Democrats for several terms as its County Committeeman. His "Letters to the Edito"� were often run in local, regional and national publications and were always both thoughtful and inspired about all sorts of societal, legal and travel-related issues.

Some of the important appellate cases in which Mr. Lipman was involved in his long legal career included, among many others, one holding that a New Jersey resident may not be compelled to testify about travel outside of New Jersey with a paramour; one holding that a litigant cannot use a Wikipedia article as evidence in New Jersey courts; one holding that a post-graduate student must actually physically reside in New Jersey to receive Rutgers University's in-state tuition discount, regardless of where his/her parents reside; and one that held that under certain circumstances, a real estate broker is entitled to a commission on the sale of land by a New Jersey municipality even in the absence of a written brokerage contract. Mr. Lipman probably was best known for his successful work on Landau vs. United Airlines in the 1980's, the first Federal court case which sought to establish the rights of consumers under frequent customer programs--in that case, United Airlines " frequent flier program” after which he appeared as a guest on several radio and television talk shows to explain and discuss the effects of the case on travelers and the travel industry.

Contributions in lieu of flowers will be gratefully accepted in Mr. Lipman's memory by the Lipman Family Dental Centers administrative office located at 2570 Rt. 9W, Cornwall, NY 12518; or by the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey's administration office located at 50 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus, NJ 07652.

https://cornerstonefamilyhealthcare.org/lipman/