Lois Chudnow Infeld ’64: Obituary
Lois Infeld, an English major from the Class of ’64, retired teacher and paralegal from Montclair, NJ, died peacefully on Oct. 28 — one day shy of her 82nd birthday.
Born Lois Chudnow in Milwaukee, she was the oldest of four children of Avrum Chudnow, an attorney and land developer, and his wife, Anita, a kindergarten teacher turned homemaker. From a young age, Lois developed a lifelong love of reading, and spent many hours curled up with a book or visiting libraries. As a child, some of her happiest memories were spending summers with her large extended family at a rented house on Lake Michigan.
Lois was an English major at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she met Martin, then a graduate student at the School of Pharmacy, on a blind date after they were matched by friends. They married in 1965 after she completed her undergraduate degree and a one-year master’s in teaching program at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. She taught high school English for three years in Evansville, Wis., a rural town where some of the students drove tractors to school.
In 1969, when Martin was hired by Hoffmann-LaRoche in Nutley, the couple moved east to Montclair. Lois spent about 10 years as a homemaker and stay-at-home mom and also was active in women’s groups such as Hadassah, the College Women’s book club, a gourmet cooking club, and more. She and her husband later became founding members of B’nai Keshet, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Montclair, and at one time Lois served as its president.
Lois went back to work in the early 1980s, first in long-term substitute jobs for high school English teachers in Nutley and Montclair before taking a full-time English teacher position at Glenfield Middle School. After a few years, she changed careers. She earned a paralegal certificate from Adelphi University in New York City and worked as a paralegal for Mutual Benefit Life Insurance in Newark, for Hoffmann-LaRoche, and for a division of Hertz in Bergen County before retiring in 2004.
She was a talented cook and baker who enjoyed hosting dinner parties, cake decorating and making special cakes for friends and family members. She also taught classes in cake decorating and in working with chocolate. A chocolate truffle layer cake she made took second place in a company chocolate contest when she worked for Mutual Benefit. Her boss there shadowed the judges during their tastings, determined to whisk the cake away to the law department as soon as the winners were declared.
In her later years, Lois enjoyed spending time with friends, volunteering at the Montclair Adult School, going on day trips with the Newark Museum, going to craft shows and to museums and shows in New York City. She loved spending time with her two grandchildren and delighted in picking out special gifts for them and making their birthday cakes.
She is survived by her husband of 59 years; three brothers, Robert (Teri) Chudnow of Green Valley, Ariz., David of Los Angeles, Daniel (Brigitte) of Mequon, Wis.; daughter Karen (Jeffrey) Blum of Owings Mills, Md.; two grandchildren; and seven nieces and nephews.
Funeral services were held Oct. 31. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Jewish National Fund and its work in Timna National Park.
