Paid Notice: Merle Froschl, a resident of Manhattan and Amagansett, died in her sleep on January 19th. She was 87.
It was a peaceful end to an adventurous life that saw her attack stereotypes in her career and continuously tackle new challenges, even at an age when many people are slowing down. Following in the footsteps of her father, who had been a singer in the waning days of vaudeville, she took up singing in her 60s and performed a one-woman off Broadway show when she was 80. Singing remained a cornerstone of her life right up until her final week, but was only one of many interests. For many years she was a regular member of a tennis group at the Atlantic Avenue courts until a creaky ankle forced her to hang up her racket. She practiced yoga religiously, which she believed allowed her to be one of the relatively few residents in her retirement home to forgo the use of a walker. Until the end of her life she was a passionate advocate for social justice, and she had planned to join a protest against ICE on the day she died.
Ms Froschl was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1938 to Morris and Mildred Sharfstein. She attended Syracuse University where she met her husband Joseph, with whom she raised two children, Joanna, of Springs, and Michael, of Conflans Sainte Honorine, France, who survive. Her husband died in 2001, a few months before the birth of their first granddaughter, Kaitlin. Two other granddaughters, Maïka and Claire, followed. She was a devoted and energetic grandmother who took each granddaughter on a trip when they turned 13: to London with Kaitlin, Amsterdam with Maïka and San Diego with Claire. Her granddaughters regularly raided her clothes closet and coined a new fashion term for their borrowed outfits: “Grandma chic”.
Her career spanned nearly fifty years working for equality in education. After graduating with a BA degree in journalism, she became an editor at Seventeen magazine. In the early 1970s, as the second phase of the Women’s Liberation movement was getting underway, Merle joined the Feminist Press as Field-testing Director for their “Women’s Lives-Women’s Work” project, traveling across the US to train teachers in the program. In 1982, she and a colleague, Barbara Sprung, co-founded Educational Equity Concepts (EEC), a national non-profit organization to create bias-free education for all students regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, disability or level of family income. As co-Director of EEC, she pursued her goal for equal education for the next 42 years, fully retiring only at the age of 86. A book commemorating her and Ms. Sprung’s career, ‘Progressive Is Not a Dirty Word’ was published just days after her death.
She treasured summers at the beach in Amagansett with her family but preferred to live in Manhattan where she could pursue her singing and maintain her tradition of seeing a play almost every Sunday. Christmas at her Upper West Side apartment was another tradition cherished by the entire family. Her decision to move to a senior living facility in 2025 was made only after ensuring that she could have a Christmas tree in her apartment.
Her younger sisters Marny Glasser of Florida and Mindy Peloquin of New Hampshire also survive, as does her niece Amy Mariano, also of New Hampshire, and her grandnephews Adam York and Benjamin York. A service was held at Yardley Pino funeral home in East Hampton on Saturday, January 31st, following which she was interred with her husband’s ashes in Cedar Lawn cemetery. A celebration of her life is planned in April in New York City. Donations can be made in her name to Girls, Inc.
