Editor’s note/update:
A hybrid memorial service is set for zoom and the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, 47-49 East 65th St. in Manhattan on Friday, March 8, from 5 pm to 8 pm. Click here to RSVP or share a memory. The family requests mourners express sympathy by donating to the Queens Historical Society, Cooper Union, Queens Botanical Garden and/or Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance in Jack Eichenbaum’s name. The event coordinator is Amy Jeu at [email protected].
Original Article
Jack Eichenbaum — a geographer, teacher, tour guide, civic activist, scrabble expert, and the Official Queens Historian — died on Dec. 30, 2023, following a stroke two days beforehand. He was 80.
Born on Feb. 22, 1941, Eichenbaum grew up in Bayside, where he attended P.S. 31, J.H.S. 74, and Bayside High School. Then, he lived, worked, and studied in four states (California, Indiana, Michigan, and Washington) and three countries (Israel, Mexico, and Switzerland) before returning to Bowne Street in Flushing, where he lived before his death.
Eichenbaum graduated from Cooper Union in 1963 and earned a Ph.D. in Urban Geography from the University of Michigan in 1972 with a dissertation entitled “Magic, Mobility and Minorities in the Urban Drama.” His career began as a Professor of Urban Geography at the University of Washington (Seattle), but he always considered Queens – which he called “The Real New York City” — to be his home, so he found his way back. His longest tenure was at NYC Department of Finance’s Property Division, where he was a Data Collector and Evaluator who modeled valuation of tax parcels. In 1990, he founded GISMO (Geospatial Informational Systems Organization), which unites those working in Geographic Information Systems in New York City. Over the years, he also taught at Hunter College and Queens College, managed the GeogNYC.com website, and ran a walking tour company.
In 2010 after he had retired, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall appointed him as Queens Borough Historian. Though a nonpaying post, he took the designation very seriously and spent countless hours promoting the borough’s history via his tours, speeches, contributions to archives, and involvement in such nonprofit organizations as the Queens Historical Society, the Guides Association of NYC, and The Municipal Arts Society of New York.
QHS plans to organize a memorial service at Kingsland Homestead, 143-35 37th Ave. in Flushing. Details will be on QHS’s website, www.queenshistoricalsociety.org.
A few statements follow.
“The Queens Historical Society joins the entire historic preservation community of Queens, greater New York City and State in mourning the passing of Jack Eichenbaum, official Queens Borough Historian and QHS Board Member. Jack was a mentor, educator and a good friend. He will be greatly missed.”
“GANYC is heartbroken that GANYC member Jack Eichenbaum has passed away … He will be dearly missed, and we send our condolences to his family, and all those who gained from his knowledge and love.”
Queens World Film Festival Executive Director Katha Cato added: “He was amazing to us. He would come to our little screenings all over the Borough, but never came to MoMI [Museum of the Moving Image] and I asked him why and he said it’s easy to see good stuff there, but when there is great stuff in the basement of the Flushing Synagogue or on the beach at Rockaway, you must go!”
Images: QHS