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Martin Harris Slobodkin, 86
Renaissance man was fixture in Provincetown & Boston cultural scene
Martin Harris Slobodkin, 86, of Cambridge and Provincetown, died in his sleep on Oct. 8. He was the husband of Teresa Craig.
Born in Malden in 1920, the son of Russian immigrants, Mr. Slobodkin graduated magna cum laude in international studies from Harvard University in 1941 and has been back to every reunion bar one since then; this would have been his 65th. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Army as a medic. Based on IQ tests, the Army sent him to graduate school at Yale to study Russian, and then to the Sorbonne in Paris to study philosophy. (His memories of WW II can be seen and heard on www.youtube.com under Mharris1920.)
When he returned home from WW II after four years in Europe, he took over the family publishing business, married his high school sweetheart, the poet Salem, and moved to Francis Avenue in Cambridge. After 17 years together, Salem died of cancer in 1964.
Of the family business, which published art reproductions on postcards and greeting cards, he said, “I was a publisher of art reproductions for my soul, and greeting cards for my pocketbook, which enabled me to have a soul.”
With sideburns and monocle, puns and charm, he was a regular at every party in Boston, often written about and seen on television as the Man About Town. Throughout his life, his interest in art, history and literature were insatiable. He was active in establishing the Poet’s Theater, president emeritus of the L Street Brownies (a group that swims naked in the ocean throughout the year), a member of Mensa, and president of the American Recorder Society. He started most mornings reading Proust and worked out at the Harvard Club with his friend Jerry Hickey, the 84-year-old founder of Boston Magazine and editor emeritus of Bostonia, Boston University’s alumni magazine. He’d ride through Boston and Cambridge on a Peugeot 10-speed bicycle, drive a Porsche convertible, top down, all year, and attend two to four parties a night.
In 1986, Mr. Slobodkin joined Creative Allies as cultural director, organizing, coordinating and hosting multiple cultural events 365 nights a year. It was through Creative Allies that he met his beloved wife, Teresa Craig, whom he married nine years ago. He continued to read Proust, swim in the ocean in Provincetown in summer and Sarasota, Fla., in winter, work out at the Harvard Club, participate fully in the cultural and social life of Cambridge, and pen inimitable letters to the editor with etymology and word play.
Since 1946, Mr. Slobodkin spent his summers in Provincetown, frequenting gallery openings, concerts and the many restaurants in town. In 1975, he and his wife at the time, Reva Poor, wrote a gossip column for The Provincetown Advocate. He was also a regular letter-writer to The Advocate and then to the Provincetown Banner, usually a pun in response to his friend Jackson Lambert’s column.
In addition to his wife, Teresa, he is survived by step-sons Michael and Sebastian Grasso; grandchildren Andrew, Mikayla, Jack, Mason and Tyler; and nieces Tobey Gordon Dichter and Ellen Gordon Cantor.
The Boston Globe, the alternative magazine The Boston Phoenix, and the Provincetown Banner have published full-page features on Martin Slobodkin.
Acknowledging his great joie de vivre, Mr. Slobodkin said in his Banner interview, “I can’t possibly believe in the hereafter, so I have to get all my pleasures right here and now. I don’t believe in pie in the sky, by and by. If you don’t have fun everyday, it’s your own fault.”
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Elizabeth Mayhew Cole, 92
Stephen J. Madden Jr., 70
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Oct 12th, 2006