Jerome Thomas Sarnoff's Obituary
Obituary of Jerome Thomas Sarnoff
May 29, 1943 - November 16, 2025
Jerome Thomas Sarnoff was born on May 29, 1943, in the Bronx, NY, to Annette (Stollmack) Sarnoff and Edward Sarnoff. Jerry did not meet his father until he was two, when Ed returned from France after serving in the US Army. The family moved into an apartment in Parkchester, where it was completed in 1948 with the birth of Robert.
In his teens, Jerry’s family moved to Queens, where he attended Queens College until a drunk driver hit him while he was on a bicycle, resulting in a lengthy hospitalization. He never returned to college, but a friend of his father’s hired him as a medical investigator for Allstate Insurance. During this time Jerry married the former Barbara Rubin and they had two children, Asher Sarnoff and Rebecca Sarnoff Breska.
A co-worker informed Jerry that NYS was offering the Workers’ Compensation Exam, and that that agency paid $2,000 per year more that they were earning at Allstate. He took the exam, along with tens of thousands of other New Yorkers. Soon after, he was invited to Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s office. He had earned the highest grade of anyone taking the exam, and was asked to work for a new agency the governor had created. It was the NYS Crime Victims Board, the first such agency in the US, which grew to be the largest such agency, and the one that all the other states copied. Over the next 35 years, as the highest-level civil servant in the agency and its institutional memory, he codified and expanded the categories of benefits
provided and types of victims served by the agency, while consulting with the boards of other states. Also during that time, he and Barbara separated and eventually divorced.
Jerry had a lifelong love of reading, as well as a lifelong love of music, and one day when he was visiting his uncle at RCA Records, he learned that record companies send free records to radio stations. He immediately went to a local radio station where he offered to do a Jazz and Blues show. He did get free records, but also learned that it was impossible to compete with not-for-profitstations at Columbia Univeristy and Rutgers, which had excellent jazz and blues programming. He gave up on his dream of being a disc jockey, but his love of music never diminished, and as long as he lived in New York he was a fan of WKCR at Columbia.
At a CVB Conference in 1987, Jerry met a woman who interviewed him about victim compensation for her dissertation. In 1991, Jerry married the former Susan Kiss, just in time for her doctoral degree to read Susan Sarnoff. He gained two stepchildren, Kristina Mott Stevens and Stephen Mott.
Then on February 26, 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed for the first time. At that time, all of NYC’s radio and television towers were atop the center, and the city lost access to news. Jerry called home on Long Island, where local Channel 12 News was the only station reporting the bombing. Over the next several years, Jerry read voraciously about terrorism, even as his agency was compensating the victims of it. He was certain that they would strike again, and finally told Susan that he “was ready” to leave New York.
Susan applied to teaching positions outside NYS. Jerry’s only request was that they move to a town with a decent Chinese restaurant. Susan chose Ohio University in tiny Athens, Ohio. Athens had three Chinese restaurants.
Jerry took an early retirement, learning that the summer jobs his Aunt Sophie had arranged for him through the NYC Parks Department had added substantially to his retirement time and pension. He intended to find work in Athens, but there was little work for non-faculty who were not students, and his pension and Susan’s salary went much farther in Ohio than they would have in New York. So Jerry became an early retiree. He was free to travel, and when his daughter and her son, Nathaniel moved to Virginia, he enjoyed Susan’s frequent travel to DC, when he got to spend time with them.
In Athens, Jerry explored the tiny, rural community. He enjoyed the university library, including its music library, and the Athens area music scene. He also spent a good amount of his time in the town’s used bookstore and its two used record stores. The record store owners sometimes asked him to make recommendations to customers seeking blues and jazz recordings.
Surprisingly, the former city boy also explored the area’s caverns and walking paths, and rode his bicycle on Athen’s fifty miles of bike trails. He also enjoyed the Athens Farmers’ Market, which offered local produce and other farm products, as well as baking, although none of the local bakers was ever able to make a real bagel.
Then, in 2009, Jerry experienced abdominal pain, went to the local hospital, and was life flighted to OSU Medical Center. His life was saved after a two month stay that resulted in his leaving with double ostomies. Stephen was there to support his mother, but also took on Jerry’s care, even completing a nursing degree. After two years, the ostomies were reversed, and Jerry was on the road to a partial recovery, although he was missing a portion of his intestines and had difficulty absorbing nutrition and gaining weight for the remainder of his life.
Jerry was eager to visit his now-widowed mother when he was finally able to travel again. Stephen drove Jerry and Susan to Delray Beach (Jerry never flew again after 9/11) where Annette was living. His brother, Robert, who had by then moved nearby, and Robert’s wife Nancy, asked Jerry to encourage his mother to move into assistive living. Jerry also rented her condo, to offset her costs and to be able to spend time with her. Annette passed away within months of moving to assistive living, but Jerry found Florida an easier place to deal with his health issues, which by then included arthritis. They moved full-time to Boynton Beach.
The Florida weather enabled Jerry to be more energetic. He and Susan explored many of the parks and nature centers, but spent the most time at nearby Wakodahatchee Preserve and Green Cay Nature Center.
The COVID lockdown limited Jerry’s activities and diet, and in 2022 he was hospitalized with kidney stones. He recovered, but the illness had further weakened his system and his physical activities became more difficult and less frequent. A year later his brother, Robert, lost his wife, Nancy, and the following year Robert died. Having his kid brother predecease him was upsetting, but learning that Robert had left no instructions for the disposal of his body, was devastating to him.
In November, Jerry had abdominal pain again. This time it was gall stones, but he was also much weaker and sicker, and he succumbed to his illness on November 16, 2025.
Despite having been raised in Judaism, Jerry was not traditionally religious. He had devoted his career to comforting the bereaved and providing support and dignity to the injured and deceased, which are the highest ethics of Judaism.
When Robert died, Jerry stated that when he died, he wanted to be remembered by playing Brokedown Palace, a song that Jerry Garcia had written, anticipating his own demise after years of illness.
To memorialize Jerry read a challenging book on science or philosophy, or something by James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Herman Hesse or Magda Szabo. Listen to some music by Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, the Reverend Gary Davis or Robert Johnson. Or any great books and music. Jerry will know, and be pleased. That is how he wanted to be remembered.
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