Sanford Golin, a resident of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, died on September 22nd, 2021 at the age of 92. Funeral services arranged by The Dorfman Chapel.

Location of Service:

Graveside

Date of Service:

Sunday September 26th, 2021

Time of Service:

12:45 PM  

Interment at:

The Hebrew Memorial Park Cemetery, 33230 Gratiot Ave., Clinton Township, MI 48035

Officiant:

Rabbi Michael Moskowitz  

Shiva Information:

The family will be sitting through Sunday evening at the residence of Gretchen and Anthony Baron, 26318 Hendrie Blvd. Huntington Woods MI 48070 Phone: (248) 398-9056.

Religious services will be held Sunday evening at 5:00PM.  
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Charitable contributions:

A charity of one's choice  

Family Members:

Sanford Golin, 92, sailor, scholar and beloved family patriarch, died on Sept. 22 in Chapel Hill, N.C., after a brief stay in hospice.
Better known by his nicknames Uncle Sonny, Grandpa Joe, Dad and just plain “Joe,” Sanford was a warm, funny guy with a passion for travel and a wide-ranging interest in human nature. He trained as a psychologist and was known to respond to questions from his children and grandchildren with his own question: What do you think? It was a sincere inquiry – he really did want to know. He was also an avid fan of chocolate ice cream, college basketball, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Boston Red Sox.But his first love was family.
He was born on July 24, 1929, in Providence, R.I., to Nathan Golin and Sophie (Lecht) Golin. He spent his early years at the center of a large extendedfamily of immigrants and first-generation Americans. Sonny, as he was known then, lived in a multi-family dwelling with his sister Evelyn, his parents, grandparents, many aunts and uncles. The Bubbe and the Zayde, his maternal grandparents, were the heart of thisJewish household. The youngest of the family, Sonny was the darling of his aunts and grandmother. When they wanted him to drink his milk, they would prepare homemade fudge for him as encouragement. He never did lose his sweet tooth, and later in life, his favorite fudge shop was the Candy Manor in Chatham, Mass., where he vacationed for more than 50 years.
Sonny was smart and athletic, earning a spot at Classical High School in Providence, where he also was captain of the basketball team. After high school, he enrolled at Brown University, where he had won a scholarship. He graduated from Brown with a B.A. in Psychology in 1951. After college, he volunteered for the Army, and he took the nickname Joe, which stuck with him the rest of his life.
Growing up in an immigrant household, he rejected many of the “Old World” ideas brought by his relatives from the Ukrainian town of Machelik. He believed scientific investigation offered a better path to explaining the world. He earned a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Iowa and became a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he published research on depression and trained generations of young psychologists over a thirty-year career.
While in graduate school, he met Anne Keefe and they married in 1957, raising their three children, Carol, Eric and Sarah, in Pittsburgh. The young family spent summers at Cape Cod, a destination that held a special place in his heart,and also spent much time sailing in the Chesapeake Bay on their sloop, The Kathy.
He divorced, and in 1987, he married Jane Berkey, of Pittsburgh. They spent many years in their cherished city, taking vacations with their combined families of five children and 11 grandchildren. Joe had also been close with his son-in-law, Andy Kaplan, Carol’s husband, who died suddenly at the age of 47. Joe and Jane enjoyed traveling extensively together and sailed regularly in the Caribbean with a close group of friends. They retired to West Palm Beach, Florida, and at the age of 80, Joe took the psychologist’s licensing exam in Florida, partlyjust to see if he could do it. He spent a lot of time studying hisindex cards and passed the exam. Being fully licensed, he took a job as a consultant in an office in Miami, where he worked two days a week up until age 87.
During the pandemic, he moved in with Carol at her home in Chapel Hill and was able to wait out the quarantine with Carol and her dog, Furby, by his side. Last month, Joe was at a family reunion in Kure Beach, N.C., with his children and many of his grandchildren. It was the first time they had been together since the pandemic, and at dinner, he made a short speech, saying: “I recently had a 92nd birthday. And I just want to say I am so glad you all are here, and I am here to celebrate, for nothing means more than family.”
Joe is survived by his wife, Jane Berkey, of Delray Beach, Florida; his children, Dr. Carol Golin, of Chapel Hill, N.C., Dr. Eric (Marion) Golin, of Newton, Mass, and Sarah (Dan Gerger) Golin, of Maplewood, N.J.; his stepchildren, Sue (Doug) Sesserman of Denver, Co., Paul (Lisa) Berkey, of West Bloomfield, Mich.; his grandchildren, James Golin, Anna Golin, Daniel Kaplan, Emily Kaplan, Jeffrey Gerger, Tommy Gerger and Vanessa Gerger; his step-grandchildren, Georgeta Sesserman, Mariana Sesserman, Sarah Berkey (Moshe) Lencer, Jack Berkey; his sister, Evelyn Baron, of Detroit, Mich.; and his nephews, Jeffrey, Tony and Dan Baron and their wives and children.  

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