Renee Kassin, née Mildner, was born on August 3, 1935 in Monticello, New York. She lived with her parents and brothers in Brooklyn, NY, and spent summers in the Catskills. Her grandparents had farms in Liberty and Woodridge. The Woodridge farm was later converted to the Lakewood Bungalow Colony, and her youth and early adulthood were spent immersed in the Borscht Belt world of bungalow colonies, hotels, and camps. When she married Alfred Kassin on May 15, 1960, at the Flagler Hotel owned by her brother’s in-laws, she joined him in running Camp Olympus in Parksville, NY.
Renee attended P.S. 99 and Midwood High School. She later attended and studied art history at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Parsons. She was a beatnick and spent time with her creative friends in Greenwich Village in the 1950s. She lived on coffee and cigarettes, as well as a side of chocolate, for most of her adult life. In the 1970s, she was part of the quilting revival, and continued with fiber arts the rest of her life. While her children attended the Rabbi Harry Halpern Day School at the East Midwood Jewish Center, she was active doing publicity and artwork for the PTA, and ran the bookshop. She taught art to campers at Olympus, and created costumes and painted sets at RHHDS.
After she lost her husband Alfred in December of 1980, she raised her three children on her own. She worked as an English tutor at Kingsborough Community College, making new friends and helping young people enter the workforce with improved writing skills. Despite the economic and physical challenges of maintaining a large house, her home became a haven for friends and family that needed a place to stay, for a day, a week, a month, or even a few years. After retiring from Kingsborough, she moved to Exeter, New Hampshire to help raise her daughter’s three children. After a serious car accident, she made the move to Los Angeles, just like her favorite Brooklyn Dodgers, where her sons were living and could care for her.
Renee was predeceased by her husband, Alfred Kassin; her parents Benjamin and Ida (Oberfest) Mildner; and her brothers and sisters-in-law, Herbert Mildner, Mimi (Eipshitz) Mildner, and Alvin and Joan (Barsky) Mildner. She is survived by her three children and their spouses, Sandra Kassin-Deardorff and Andrew (Deardorff), Stephen Kassin and Shay Fairchild, and Jason and Sasha (Ruocco) Kassin; her seven grandchildren and their SOs, Benjamin (Carol), Alexander (Leah), Julia (Pierce), Conrad, Thea (Xander), Gunner (Natalie), and Gracie (Jesse); and her five great grandchildren, Brooklyn, Colton, Carmine, Rowan, and Ainsley.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in memory of Renee to the Brooklyn Museum.
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