Jon Goldman, one of the founding members of the progressive Beacon School on the Upper West Side, who guided two generations of students there through the complexities of American and British literature, died March 28. He was 50.
Mr. Goldman, who grew up in Huntington, L.I., and spent three years in Israel in the early 1970s after his parents made aliyah, taught in the English department at the highly regarded public high school for 20 years, establishing a reputation as a dynamic, compassionate teacher and a leading school representative to New York City’s teachers’ union.
During his high school years, Mr. Goldman, who held a master’s degree from Columbia University, was an accomplished fencer, earning a spot on the U.S. Junior Olympic team. He was an original member of the Beacon faculty, having taught there since the school’s inception in 1993.
Mr. Goldman is survived by his son, Jacob, 11, his parents Isolde and Samuel Goldman of Riverdale (founding members of the Reconstructionist synagogue Kehilat Shalom in Cold Spring Harbor, L.I.), and a brother, Ed Goldman, of Orange County, Calif. Mr. Goldman is also survived by Jacob’s mother, Mandy Hass, from whom he was recently divorced.
In a sign of what Mr. Goldman meant to the Beacon community, the school announced that it would name its library after him.
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