Raymond J. Lauenstein

Raymond J. Lauenstein

ALTAMONT – Raymond J. Lauenstein was a man with a strong sense of responsibility and a great sense of humor, said his daughter, A. Cecilia Lauenstein. He died at home, she said, surrounded by the love of his family, on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017.  He was 79.

He was born on Aug. 30, 1937 in Astoria, Queens and grew up in the Parkchester section of the Bronx. He was the “very beloved only child” of Mary Ellen Lauenstein (née Mahoney) and Franklyn Raymond Lauenstein, his daughter said.

Mr. Lauenstein graduated from Archbishop Stepinac High School in Westchester in 1956 and went on to Fordham University.

He met his wife, Anne Marie Durner, “on a dare, or a bet,” said Ms. Lauenstein, when a friend had a date planned and needed him to find a girl, too, to make it a double date. The couple married on April 8, 1961 in St. Raymond’s Church in the Bronx and spent 55 happy years together cooking, traveling, and enjoying family.

Mr. Lauenstein was drafted into the United States Army in September 1961, when the Berlin Wall was erected. He served in the Army’s Signal Research and Development Group, ostensibly to spy on Russian nuclear testing at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

His daughter related a story about the time Mr. Lauenstein was on duty in the radio room in October 1962, monitoring what was happening with the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the telephone inside the safe in the closet started to ring. “That had never happened before,” she said.

Her father had to get the combination and open the safe; it was President John F. Kennedy calling. The unit usually relayed its information to Pentagon officials, who passed it on to the president, but, that day, Kennedy wanted to get it directly from the radio room. Mr. Lauenstein spoke to the president for a while until it occurred to him to put his commanding officer on the phone, his daughter said.

He was honorably discharged from the Army in September 1963.

He and Mrs. Durner Lauenstein had four children, three of whom survive: A. Cecilia Lauenstein, Elizabeth Lauenstein, and Raymond Lauenstein. Their eldest child, Francis, is deceased.

When his children were young, A. Cecilia Lauenstein recalled, her father was “always on the playground, or at the Bronx Zoo, with us.”

For several years, Mr. Lauenstein worked as an insurance consultant for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. From 1966 until 1981, he worked for Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals, progressing from sales representative to director of professional services, where he produced 60 medical teaching films in urology and obstetrics and gynecology. He won several Golden Eagle Awards for outstanding productions. On the basis of his work, he was made a voting member of the American Urologic Association in 1981.

With each promotion at Norwich Eaton came a move for the family, which finally settled in Norwich, New York in 1974. It was there that Mr. Lauenstein and his wife formed Culture Kits Inc., a business that manufactured medical diagnostic kits and sold them to doctors, hospitals, and colleges across the country. The couple ran the business for 25 years until their retirement in 2006.  

Mr. Lauenstein was a New York State-certified high school football official and president of the Tri-Valley chapter of officials. He was elected twice to the Norwich Board of Education and served four years as president. He was a member of the Norwich Rotary for over 25 years, held several offices, and hosted numerous exchange students. He was a longtime parishioner and lector at St. Paul’s Church in Norwich and served as vice president of Chenango Catholic Charities.

Mr. Lauenstein was a huge sports fan and loved to travel with his wife all over New York State and the East Coast to cheer for his children and grandchildren.

He traveled often with his wife, said their daughter, including to Russia, Turkey, and Iceland. Together with A. Cecilia Lauenstein and her two children, the couple also visited Italy, France, and Monaco.

He loved to cook, his daughter said. “Wherever we went, we would stay in an apartment, and the first thing we would do would be go out to the local grocery shops, make purchases, and go home and cook,” she said.

As much as he loved to travel, he also loved to stay at home, his daughter said. He and his wife built a big deck in the family’s backyard in Norwich and held many family gatherings there. They called the deck “The Good Life Café.”

Upon retiring in 2006, Ray and Anne Lauenstein moved to Altamont to be near children and grandchildren, all of whom live in the Capital District. In Altamont, Mr. Lauenstein continued his affiliation with Rotary International as well as the Kiwanis International. He volunteered weekly at the Captain John J. McKenna IV Military Courtesy Room at Albany International Airport, until illness forced him to retire. He was an active parishioner, volunteer, and lector, first at St. Lucy’s Church in Altamont and later at St. Matthew’s Church in Voorheesville.

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Raymond J. Lauenstein is survived by his wife of 55 years, Anne Marie Durner Lauenstein, and by three of their four children: A. Cecilia Lauenstein and her husband, Ron Nadeau; Elizabeth Lauenstein; and Raymond Lauenstein Jr. and his wife, Allison Wallach Lauenstein. He was a “proud and loving grandfather,” his family wrote, to grandchildren Ryan and Audrey Nadeau and Sophie and Hannah Lauenstein.

His first child, Francis Lauenstein, died before him, as did his parents, Mary Ellen Mahoney Lauenstein and Franklyn Raymond Lauenstein.

Relatives and friends are invited to visit with his family on Saturday, Feb. 4, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in St. Matthew’s Church, 25 Mountainview Street, Voorheesville.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. in the church. Interment will follow in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands. Arrangements are by the Daniel Keenan Funeral Home in Albany. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.danielkeenanfuneralhome.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to the University at Albany women’s basketball team, care of the University at Albany Foundation, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany 12222.

— Elizabeth Floyd Mair 

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