{"id":31396,"date":"2021-02-25T00:05:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T05:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=31396"},"modified":"2025-08-31T20:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T00:05:19","slug":"obituary-of-nathaniel-greenspun-1930-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/25\/obituary-of-nathaniel-greenspun-1930-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Obituary of Nathaniel Greenspun, 1930-2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nathaniel Greenspun died at age 90 on February 24, 2021 at home with his wife Regina<\/a> in the Maplewood Park Place Retirement Community, Bethesda, Maryland.\u00a0 He had been getting progressively weaker over the past few years and suffered a dramatic episode of weakness, leading to a fall, one week after receiving his second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. It is possible that a stroke accelerated his decline, but no definitive diagnosis was obtained. Most of the following was written by Nat himself in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the loving husband of many years of Regina, the father of Suzanne, Philip, and Harry, the grandfather of 11, and great-grandfather of 1. In addition to his immediate family, he is survived by his younger sister, Elinor Dulit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in New York City, Nathaniel attended elementary and high schools in Forest Hills, Queens, and was the valedictorian of his class at Forest Hills High School. He then went to Harvard College where he was graduated summa cum laude and admitted to Phi Beta Kappa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After college, he earned an M.A. in Economics from Harvard and was a Teaching Fellow  in the Economics department. Beginning in 1953, he served twenty-one months in the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1956, he married Regina Gittes and in 1958 moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked at the Bureau of the Census on a new program of “company statistics.”  Four years later, he transferred to the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission where he worked on an effort to collect data from the 500 largest companies. In 1962, he transferred to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve where he worked in a division that evaluated the competitiveness of bank mergers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1966, he returned to the Federal Trade Commission where he mostly worked on issues relating to consumer protection, such as false advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living during an era of the rapid development of technology, he became an enthusiastic user of the computer, enjoyed music in stereo, frequently recorded TV programs, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and Regina loved to travel and over the years made numerous trips to many parts of the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel. Classical music was his constant companion, something he had enjoyed since perhaps the age of 10. He was a devoted supporter of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to the Plant a Tree in Israel<\/a> (JNF) organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A memorial service will be held in May 2021 at the Garden of Remembrance<\/a> in Clarksburg, Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a family history video project<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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