Edith L. (Levin) Izenberg

Mrs. Edith L. Izenberg, long-time resident in Albuquerque passed away peacefully on May 30, 2019, following a brief illness. Edith is survived by her two children, Brian and Janice, and her grandchildren Hallie and Eric. Edith was born in New York City, one of three children to Irving and Lena Levin. She spent a number of years of her childhood in Vermont, and then returned to New York City with her parents early in the Great Depression.

In New York, Edith became an accomplished pianist and graduated from the City College of New York with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. After graduating from college, she began work as a script writer for a major broadcasting service then moved into the Advertising field. As a young woman, Edith took up skiing, tennis and golf.

It was on a sunny golf course that she met her husband, Ivan, who was also a golfer. The two married in February 1950 and throughout their marriage, which lasted 64 years, both would find time together to tee up. Thanks to her husband’s facility with foreign languages, she found herself packing and leaving the New York metro area to his first tour as a Foreign Service Officer assigned to Bangkok, Thailand. Edith was subsequently to accompany her husband to assignments in Tokyo, Japan; Vientiane, Laos, Hong Kong (BCC), and Sydney, Australia. In her life she met and got to know personally many of the greats of the twentieth century. As a child, she once recited poetry to Robert Frost. As a student, she studied under the great Psychology humanist, Abraham Maslow. As an adult she met Edwin Reischauer, Harvard scholar and U.S. ambassador to Japan when her husband was assigned to USIS Tokyo. There she met James Michener and his wife, exchanging Christmas cards over the years. Later in Hong Kong, when Ivan was the Control Officer for the installation of the first Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, she was there, graciously entertaining Ambassador Designate, George H.W. Bush. Later she danced with Ivan at his Inaugural ball. In Washington, D.C. she served as a docent at the National Gallery of Art for 10 years, welcoming many art lovers to this great museum. Upon retirement, Ivan and Edith established their longtime residence in the foothills of Northeast Albuquerque. There, Edith served as a docent for many years at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and was an avid bridge player. Edith moved to the Montebello on Academy a few months after her husband’s passing and was an active resident living in an Independent Living environment with many friends.