Peter Kobel passed away peacefully on February 9, 2020 in Amherst, MA at the age of 67. He was born in Phoenix, AZ and received degrees in English Literature from Arizona State University.

As a peripatetic journalist, he covered music, movies and books for the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, before finally taking root in New York City, where he rose quickly to Editor at several highly regarded publications, including Premiere, Saveur, ARTnews, and Entertainment Weekly.

Ultimately unable to resist the siren songs of the natural world he’d loved from youth, he packed bags for western Massachusetts.

“Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture” (Little, Brown, 2007), his first highly-acclaimed foray into book length writing would soon be followed by “The Strange Case of the Mad Professor: A True Tale of Endangered Species, Illegal Drugs, and Attempted Murder” (Globe Pequot Press, 2013). Writing them allowed him to further explore two life-long interests: the history of film and the wild lemurs of Madagascar.

A creative spirit, scholar, humanist and adventurer, Peter will also be remembered as a kind and loving life partner, a steadfast friend, a devoted father and brother, who lived a rich, meaningful and ultimately inspiring life.

He is survived by his life partner, Ruta Duncia, his daughter, Olivia Hart-Kobel, his sister, Susan Kobel Rogers, his niece and nephew, Christine (Chrissy) Rogers and James (Rusty) Rogers, Jr., along with their respective families, and Izzy, his latest rescue beagle. He is much loved and will be greatly missed.

Known for his wry humor and easy erudition, his last letters always ended with a paraphrase of Shakespeare’s bemusing stage direction: “ – Exit, Pursued by Bears.”

Ward S. Motts, pioneering hydrogeologist and emeritus professor of geology at UMASS Amherst, died peacefully aged 95 at the Hospice of the Fisher Home in Amherst, MA. Born in Cleveland, October 31, 1924, to German-American salesman Howard E. and Norwegian immigrant and award-winning painter Alicia Sundt Motts, he grew up with a love of baseball. An early thrill was meeting Babe Ruth in 1934. The following year he traveled with his mother to London and saw King George V during his silver jubilee. Ward was exposed to fine art and literature from early childhood, interests that never left him. At 17, tragedy struck. Within three months he lost his father, his grandmother, and the US plunged into WWII. He went to night school and worked to support himself and his mother. Later that fall when his mother left for New York after losing their home, he stayed in Cleveland and graduated on time from Lakewood High School in 1943. Despite such hardships he was accepted into Columbia University in 1944.

In summer of 1945 Ward was drafted into the army and before his basic training, the war ended. He was assigned to the 977 Signal Corps and sent to Livorno (Leghorn), Italy with the occupation force to create order in a ravaged and desperate country. Returning home in the winter of 1947, he graduated from Columbia (under University President Dwight D. Eisenhower) in 1949. While in the Army he became attracted to the field of geology. In 1951 he earned his Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota and married Dona Mae Drumm immediately thereafter; together they embarked on a journey that would span 68 years. They moved to California where he was an engineering geologist for the Bureau of Reclamation for two years. He then secured a job as a groundwater geologist with the US Geological Survey in New Mexico, where he discovered the beauty and challenges of desert geology. He mapped the Carlsbad Quadrangle, published by the USGS, one of his greatest accomplishments.

After earning his Ph.D from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1957, Ward, with Dona and baby son Paul, moved back to New Mexico where he continued work with the Survey. He and his young family lived in Roswell and Albuquerque, where daughter Greta was born. In 1960 Ward taught groundwater at the University of Oklahoma, Norman and worked at the Oklahoma Geological Survey. The following year he was hired as associate professor of geology at UMASS. During his 34-year tenure he pioneered the hydrogeology program, directly supervised 35 graduate theses and brought in almost $1.8 million in today’s dollars in research grants for the University. Ward worked tirelessly to preserve water quality in over 70 towns in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and elsewhere. He was an authority on playa geology, wrote what is considered to be an authoritative book on playa geology, and was considered a preeminent hydrogeologist in the eastern United States. Sought after by corporate titans, congressmen, and farmers, his professionalism never wavered; he treated everyone with compassion. He fought for safe drinking water through aquifer and recharge area protection, and established and chaired the Aquifer Protection Committee in Amherst.

After retirement in 1995, Ward’s thirst for learning continued unabated. He and Dona attended Five College Learning in Retirement. They traveled to visit their children and grandchildren; viewed two solar eclipses in West Africa and the Caribbean; and attended Columbia reunions. His passion for art, music, and environmental conservation influenced both children: Paul, as a natural history specialist with the National Park Service, and Greta in music. Ward’s love of family history wove through his entire life; Motts family reunions were eagerly anticipated. A humble and often unsung hero in the world of hydrogeology, his towering achievements and honesty, integrity and compassion have earned him admiration from colleagues around the world.

Ward is predeceased by his nephew Douglas Drumm. He leaves his wife Dona, children Paul (Gretchen) and Greta Motts Birkby (Dana), nephew David Drumm, and niece Mary Frances Sikora, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The patriarch of the Motts and Sundt clans, he also leaves close to 200 cousins spanning four generations. Condolences through Douglass Funeral Home. Remembrances to the Kestrel Trust of Amherst, MA. 

Born in Grand Rapids Michigan on March 22, 1936, Richard H. Martin was the eldest child of Helen Hickam Martin and John B. Martin Jr., a State Senator and Auditor General. Richard attended Cranbrook School in Detroit where from an early age he became interested in the “Great Questions”, and “what makes people tick”, topics covered in the sermons of his pastor, Duncan Littlefair, Ph.D.

Richard went on to Dartmouth College where he studied Philosophy and Psychology and upon graduation, married the late Dian Dee Noonan of Grand Rapids in 1958. Richard completed three years of seminary at Episcopal Divinity School in New York City, followed by 20 years as an Episcopal Pastor of churches in Pomeroy, OH; Columbus, OH; Seat Pleasant, MD; and Amesbury, MA. In Seat Pleasant, he was affectionately known as Father Rick, and earned the admiration of his peers for ministering to his white and black congregation in equal measure and mediating racial enmity. In Amesbury he experimented with support groups and meditation, eventually turning to New Age theology.

In 1985, Richard received a Doctor of Ministry (Psychology) from Andover-Newton Theological School and opened a counseling center in Charlestown MA with his second wife Jean Wright. He then trained in the spiritual psychology of Psychosynthesis. He increasingly found the sacred in the psychoses and later began offering Intuitive Holistic Health Assessment. In 2005 Richard trained as an international mediator and joined the summer staff of “A Tent for All Nations” in the Palestinian sector of Bethlehem. For eleven years he taught peaceful conflict resolution among Jews and Palestinians. More recently, he volunteered to help revive Unity Church in Greenfield, MA until health issues prompted his retirement.

Rick loved poetry, playing the guitar, and peacemaking. He is survived by his sister, Gillian Sorensen, by his sons Francis, Timothy, and Andrew; granddaughters Alyssa and Elizabeth and grandsons John and George.

The memorial service for Mr. Martin has been postponed until further notice.

Joanne Kayser died unexpectedly at her home on February 18 at the age of 78. It is hard to say goodbye to such a strong-willed, generous, and independent woman whose voice resonated so powerfully with everyone who knew her.

Born and raised in Laconia, NH to Albert and Priscilla Mazzaschi, Joanne was the oldest of seven children. Joanne loved listening to classical music and learning; she began every day with the New York Times, completing the crossword puzzle before evening. She was a voracious reader, and if you mentioned wanting a book, chances were it would end up on your doorstep the next day. Although she withdrew from the University of New Hampshire to start a family, one of Joanne’s proudest accomplishments was returning to complete her degree, even while caring for six young children.

She spent thirty years dedicated to a career in public service working for the NH Department of Employment Security, advocating for the disadvantaged and helping those in need. Each morning she left the house before anyone else was awake, and at night she would help with homework. Sundays were spent cooking so that there would be hot meals for the week.

After retirement, she relocated to Amherst and devoted her time to her grandkids—instilling in them a love of reading and spoiling them with fast food. Joanne was a passionate woman with lots of opinions, and she was happy to share them. She freely told family and strangers alike what they were doing right AND wrong. Several of her twelve grandchildren recall hitting the car floor as “Nana” would roll down her window to yell at bike riders for not wearing helmets. Yet, she knit mittens, hats, and scarves for more children, spouses, grandchildren, and friends than could be counted. She would sew a Halloween costume with a day’s notice. She continued to cook for this new generation, and she never forgot a birthday. If only there could be just one more family celebration, even if it involved another argument about an upcoming election—it would be worth it.

Joanne is survived by her children Cris, Kim, Karin, Ken, Carolyn, and Amy; her grandchildren Alyssa, Katherine, Noah, and Eli Kayser-Hirsh, Tori and Lexi Ekonomy, Jacob and Cassie Kayser, Truman and Sebastian Colby, and Chloe and Maya Phelan; and her siblings Janice Wike, Mike Mazzaschi, Ann Grandmaison, Tony Mazzaschi, Steve Mazzaschi, and Candace Bold.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 9 in Amherst with details to follow. Joanne would be grateful for donations in her name to Family Outreach of Amherst or Planned Parenthood.

Born in Los Angeles, on June 21, 1940, Mary Luciana Lombardi died peacefully surrounded by family at her home in Applewood in Amherst, Massachusetts, on February 12, 2020. She is survived by her immediate family of brother and sister-in-law John and Cathryn Lombardi with their children, her nephew John (and spouse Shannon, and their children, Alexandra and Samantha), and her niece, Maryann (and her child, Molly).

A long time resident of Santa Cruz, California, Luciana grew up in Los Angeles, and lived in other cities during her remarkably productive lifetime. An accomplished musician, she performed in consorts and chamber music groups in over 130 concert performances related to her specialties in Baroque and Renaissance music. Her repertoire consisted of over 350 individual works dating from the 14th century, performed over the decades from the 1970s through the early 2000s. Along with her other community activities and as part of her leadership in her field, she served as the Monterey Bay area representative to the Viola da Gamba society of America (beginning in1984), as a Founding Member and President of the Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Board of Directors (1990-97), and as a Founding Member and President of the Santa Cruz Baroque and Living Music Festivals, Board of Directors (1977-87).

For twenty-six years (1978-2004), she shared classical music through the Pataphysical Broadcasting Foundation, on KUSP FM for the Monterey Bay and surrounding areas. She auditioned and classified innumerable recordings for the KUSP library of recorded music. During the 1980s and 1990s she hosted live broadcasts from the KUSP Remote Van at the Carmel Bach and Cabrillo Contemporary Music Festivals, and edited and hosted delayed broadcasts of other festivals and concert series recorded live. In 1989 she was honored as First ‘Pataphysician of the Year by KUSP-FM for outstanding service in community broadcasting.

In addition to her two major publications, Lucília Guimarães Villa-Lobos: An Introduction, (2008) [http://musicandwords.net/IntroLucilia.pdf] and Cantar é Viver / To Sing Is To Live: Music by Lucília Guimarães Villa-Lobos (2002-2008) [http://musicandwords.net/lucilia.pdf], she has authored 13 scholarly program notes related to classical music performances, as well as book reviews and scholarly and encyclopedia articles.

A graduate of Occidental College (BA), with graduate degrees in Library Science from UCLA (MLS), in Latin American Studies from Indiana University (MA), and in Latin American history from UCLA (PhD), Dr. Lombardi has taught or worked at the University of Southern California School of Library Science (1972, 1973), five community college libraries in the greater Los Angeles area (1971-74), a Seminar at the Instituto Brasileiro de Bibliografía e Documentação (Rio de Janeiro 1971), UCLA (1964-65, 1971-74), Indiana University Bloomington (1969-71), Julliard School in New York (1967), The New York Public Library (Lincoln Center and 42nd Street branches, 1965-66), and the H.W. Wilson Company, New York (1967). Within her Lombardi Indexing Service she prepared over 50 indexes to major scholarly books, including the 1968 publication by the H.W. Wilson Company of Library Literature 1967: An Author and Subject Index to Selected Material on Library Science and Librarianship (Edited by Jane E. Stevens. Indexer: Mary Lombardi). She also taught a number of courses, master classes, and private lessons related to her music specialty. A complete listing of her activities, honors, and awards is available at [http://musicandwords.net].

A private gathering of family and friends took place in Amherst, Massachusetts, on February 16, 2020.

Elba Alicia Fernandez, 91 years old passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on February 1, 2020 in Amherst MA. She was the daughter of Luis Alberto Fernandez and Rosa Lucila Nunez. She was born and raised in Santiago, Chile along with her sister Eliana and her brother Pedro, who was a father figure to her when their father passed. When she was 15 years old she met the love of her life, Julio Osvaldo Gonzalez at a family party. He was handsome, and as the gentleman he was, asked her brother permission to ask her to a dance. They loved each other since. Seven years later they married at age 22 on September 9th 1950. From their union were born 5 children, Leonardo, Maria Soledad, Carolina, Alicia and Viviana.

In her youth, Alicia made cosmetology her profession. At the same time she was dedicated to raising her children and helping to bring up the family along with her husband. After a few years Alicia and her husband bought a bar restaurant in Santiago called “Los Chiquitos” where they both worked for 10 years. Around that time they bought their house in San Bernardo in the outskirts of Santiago.

In October 1989 Alicia’s husband passed away, and she became a widow. After 5 years, she traveled to USA to live with her daughter Maria Soledad and her children in Amherst MA. She eventually became a resident and later a citizen of USA. While she lived in Amherst and after having worked in a few jobs she was hired at Whole Food Market where she centered herself and developed her potential as a worker. She was respected and loved by her coworkers, management and customers. At WFM she made great friendships, loving to work with the youth and the older people who enjoyed her incredible charismatic personality and her empathy. At some point Alicia was the eldest worker in the entire company which led to be honored in the company’s newspaper which made her feel full of pride. She retired from the company at age 85 and began to enjoy her retirement by doing what she loved… travel.

Her adventurous spirit led her to travel to places such as Spain, where she visited her grandson Anganile who was studying Spanish at the University. She also went to Panama, and took several trips to Argentina to visit her daughter Carolina and her family, in one opportunity with her granddaughter Maria Alicia and another with her granddaughter Pamela. She also traveled to Hawaii to visit her grandson Anganile. At 90 years old she made the trip of her dreams, in a cruise to the Mediterranean Sea with daughter Viviana and her husband Claudio.

Alicia leaves 5 children: Leonardo, Maria, Carolina, Alicia and Viviana. 14 grandchildren: Roxana, Merlin, Andres, Ivo, Pamela, Anganile, Azwan, Marilalicia, Matias, Daniel, Julio, Ilish, Valentina and Carla. 11 great-grand children: Diego, Antonia, Valentin, Santino, Martina, Tomas, Vicente, Florencia, Julieta, Leon and Kylo.

Calling hours will take place at the Douglass Funeral Home at 87 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA on Sunday, February 9th, 2020 between 2 pm and 5 pm.

Yetta Lippman Meisel, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday amidst her cherished and loving family and friends, passed away on January 8, 2020, in Amherst, MA. Yetta was born in Rochester, NY, on October 15, 1919. As she was growing up, the Great Depression of the late 1930s choked many families’ ability to make ends meet, and Yetta left high school for work that contributed to her family’s income. A standout among Yetta’s many life-time accomplishments was achieving her high school G.E.D. at age 50.

Yetta and her beloved late husband, Isadore (Sud), were married in Rochester in 1942 and, over the next 70-plus years of marriage, wherever they lived, their doors were open to family and friends eager to engage their vibrant, fun personalities. To spend time with Yetta and Sud was to be in the presence of welcoming and interested wit and good humor. At various times, Yetta and Sud lived in Rochester, Honeoye Falls, Fairport, and Victor, NY, until 2001 when they moved to Amherst to be close to family.

For several years when she lived in Honeoye Falls, Yetta was the owner of a shoe store. But her career passion and longevity lay in breeding boxers and showing them in confirmation competition. Yetta was nationally respected for her knowledge of dog breeding and for her boxer champions. She also taught classes and competed in dog obedience. After more than three decades of concentrating on boxers, she turned to breeding smooth-coated fox terriers, the smaller dogs causing less physical wear and tear on her petite person.

Yetta is survived by her devoted daughter Lynda, by son-in-law Brian McColgan; and by grandchildren Matthew (Shay Secundo) Stoffolano of Sierra Vista, AZ; Adam (Melissa) Stoffolano of Greenfield, MA; Arielle (Jesse) Henson of Hatfield, MA; Tessa (Eben) Hill of St. Albans, VT; Molly McColgan (Ted Barragy) of Houston, TX; and Carrie McColgan (David Branson) of New Castle, ME. She leaves also her deeply loved great-grandchildren Mara, Bridget, Maxwell, Luciano, Noah, Lydia, Josephine and Lucas. Yetta’s loving family includes nieces Judy Goldberg, Barbara Astman, Carol Chrisler, Bonnie Steltzer, Susan Meisel, and Jacqueline Bodner, and nephews Robert Meisel and George Bodner. Yetta was predeceased by her sisters, Bessie Bodner and Ethel Steltzer.

A self-affirmed dog person, Yetta nevertheless had as her inseparable companion over the past few years in her Amherst condo a tuxedo cat named Hawthorne.

To honor Yetta, in lieu of flowers, please donate to the charity of your choice.

Gregory John Scanlon of Palmer MA (formerly of Northampton, MA) died on 1/28/20 at age 66. Greg grew up in Amherst, MA where he and his siblings (John, Joe, Liz and Jim) attended Amherst Regional High School. Greg went to UMass Amherst and played on the football and wrestling teams and graduated with bachelor’s degrees in sociology and psychology. Greg worked at the Belchertown State School and in subsequent years for related social service agencies where he advocated for and taught techniques for “passive restraint” of violent clients to insure the safety of both clients and caregivers. For a number of years Greg taught CPR classes through the Red Cross. Greg was predeceased by his parents Gerald F. and Frances (Doherty) Scanlon of Amherst, MA and an older brother David who died in childhood. Besides his siblings and their spouses Greg leaves ten (10) nieces and nephews, eight (8) aunts and uncles and something like fifty (50) cousins. Calling hours will be Saturday February 8th and the family requests no flowers be sent or donations made. At his request Greg will be cremated and his brothers will honor his ashes. After calling hours on Saturday, all are invited to an informal gathering at the Boltwood Inn (formerly the Lord Jeffrey Inn) from 6-8 pm to enjoy food and beverages and share remembrances of Gregory.

Robert Montrose (Bob) Graham, 90, of Pelham died peacefully on January 2, 2020, with family at his bedside. Bob was born in St. Johns, Michigan to Esther Pearl of Clinton County, Michigan and Walter L. Graham of Kincardine, Ontario. He is predeceased by his younger sister Margaret. Bob is survived by his wife Judith Pierce of Pelham, by two children and one grandson from his first wife Charlotte, Heather Graham of Atlanta, and Monty Graham and grandson Walter Graham, both of New York City and by Judith’s daughter Gale Hubley and granddaughters Jessica and Katharine Swiercz of Pelham, and son Lincoln Hubley of Haydenville.

As a child during the Great Depression, Bob was raised on his mother’s family farm. Both his parents were unemployed. But the farm was self-sufficient, so Bob did not want. In fact, in the background was the sound of his aunt Francis playing the family Steinway Baby Grand. Bob’s ancestry is rooted in academia. His mother taught high school math, his uncle Orsamus Merrill Pearl was Chairman of the Classics Department at the University of Michigan, and his uncle William Pearl was an Oxford Rhodes Scholar, before being wounded in 1917 in the Battle of Verdun, while serving as an ambulance driver in the French Army. Bob also served. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1952 serving in the Korean War as part of the U.S. Army Security Agency, rising to the rank of Sergeant and receiving multiple commendations at the time of his Honorable Discharge in 1955.

Bob led a storied life in computer science, beginning as a pioneer in the 1950’s at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Bob received an MA in Mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1957, where his passion for computers began. At the time, there were no formal academic programs, as computer science was not yet a discipline in its own right. As a Senior Programmer at the University of Michigan in 1960, he co-authored the MAD compiler, which was widely used at universities and in industry. Coupled with in-depth early experience as a systems programmer, it launched his career. The MAD compiler was perhaps best known for its wry error-handling. If a program did not compile, MAD would output a line-printed image of Alfred E. Neuman, with the inscription “What, me worry?”

During the Cuban missile crisis, the Pentagon realized its computer systems were fatally slow: they could only do one thing at a time. MIT legends J. C. R. Licklider and Robert Fano persuaded the Department of Defense to fund the idea of “Time Sharing” computers. In 1963 Bob was one of a few chosen to join Dr. Fernando (“Corby”) Corbató’s “Project MAC” as a core designer of the Multics operating system, the first generation of time-sharing operating systems, helping to make the expensive, hard to get, and slow computers of the day, orders of magnitude more efficient. Multics was an ancestor of Unix, and the origin of key technologies, such as email.

After MIT, Bob was Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley, before joining the Computer Science faculty at the City College of New York, from 1972-1975. He accepted the position of Chairman of the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts in 1975. It was to become his academic “home”. Under his leadership, the University of Massachusetts developed an undergraduate major in computer science.

Bob retired in 1996, having taught for 30 years, authored dozens of papers, given countless talks, hosted numerous workshops, and written a textbook. In 1996 he was inducted as an Association of Computing Machinery “Fellow”. He became Professor Emeritus at the College of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Massachusetts and for years after regularly visited the University to participate in events with faculty, students and staff. It was his home away from home.

Colleagues at MIT nurtured Bob’s interest in the outdoors, with weekend hiking, backpacking, and rock-climbing outings. He joined the Appalachian Mountain Club, and introduced his family to New Hampshire’s White Mountains. He taught his son rock-climbing at Quincy Quarries and at the Shawangunks. His son and grandson actively hike and climb, a tribute to Grandpa Bob’s legacy.

Bob and Judi traveled extensively to parks and conservation land all over the world, from Africa to the Galapagos, the Northwestern U.S and Alaska, finding refuge and delight in the flora and fauna along the way. Their travels were not solely focused on nature, but on history as well. They spent two summer vacations driving and camping, and sometimes paddling, the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back.

Bob was a keen supporter of his wife Judi’s passion for land conservation in Massachusetts. Judi serves on the Board of Kestrel Land Trust, which currently monitors and permanently protects over 3,500 acres of private and municipal land in 15 towns for the benefit of future generations. He often volunteered to join her at Kestrel functions and on her many visits monitoring land projects. Bob was a devotee of light opera and served on the board and worked behind the scenes on set construction for Valley Light Opera productions for 27 consecutive years. Both Bob and Judi found warm comradery in the VLO community.

Visiting hours at the Douglass Funeral Service, 87 North Pleasant St., Amherst are Friday, January 31 from 5 to 7 PM. In lieu of flowers memorial donations can be made to The Valley Light Opera, P.O. Box 2143, Amherst MA 01004 or to Kestrel Land Trust, P. O. Box 1016, Amherst MA 01004.

Firuzeh Khorasanizadeh died on January 17, 2020, a few months after her 58th birthday, at Hospice of the Fisher Home in Amherst, MA. Firuzeh was born in Iran and came to Worcester, Massachusetts in August 1978, as a student at Worcester Academy. After high school graduation, she spent a year at Clark University before transferring to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree in applied mathematics. Soon after moving to Michigan she married Kourosh Danai, whom she had met during summer vacations on the Caspian Sea. After receiving their degrees they moved to Amherst in 1987 with their year-old son, Amin, where they have made home ever since. Their daughter Afra Mehr was born in 1992.

Firuzeh worked at MassMutual as an actuarial analyst, at UMass Medical as a data analyst in public health, at UMass Amherst in various capacities, and as a high school math teacher in Springfield public schools. She enjoyed working but she was a caretaker at heart, and her children and family always came first.

Firuzeh loved swimming and hiking. She logged countless laps in the Hampshire Athletic Club pool in Amherst and was happiest when she was swimming in the ocean off the Cape Cod National Seashore or in one of the kettle ponds on the Cape. She started many of her mornings with walks in the Amethyst Brook Conservation Area. Firuzeh also learned to play bridge in her final years. But more than anything she loved her golden retriever, Asal, who was her constant companion for the last 10 years of her life and was at her side to the end in the Fisher Home.

Firuzeh is survived by her husband of 38 years, Kourosh Danai, her children, Amin and Afra Mehr, her daughter-in-law, Laura, her mother, Fatemeh Sadeghi, her siblings, Farzin, Sepideh, and Sadaf, and their families. Calling hours will be at Douglass Funeral Home in Amherst from 11-12:30 on Tuesday January 21 followed by a reception at Inn on Boltwood from 12:30-2:30. The burial will be private. A memorial will be held at a future date.