The trustees and staff of the Altman Foundation mourn the loss of our beloved trustee and friend Maurice “Skip” A. Selinger, Jr. who died on Saturday, May 13, 2017 at 91. Skip was elected an Altman trustee in 1978 and trustee emeritus in 2013. His service spanned 39 years of the Foundation’s history, including the sale of B. Altman & Co., the development of a mission focused on New York City, and our centennial.
In 1944, immediately after high school, Skip enlisted in the United States Navy, served as a pharmacist’s mate in the Pacific aboard the cruiser Louisville, and was wounded in a kamikaze attack that wiped out his entire battle station. After the war he attended Haverford College. In 1949, he went to work at Eastern Airlines, where he was responsible for sales and later for coordinating travel arrangements for the White House press corps attached to President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration. In 1963, Skip joined American Express, where he served as special assistant to two chief executive officers, handling liaison and travel arrangements for members of the Board of Directors. In 1994, he realized a long-held dream of becoming a travel agent, a profession he loved and from which he retired in 2010.
Skip brought kindness, humor, loyalty and good judgement to everything he did. We miss his wisdom. Our condolences go to his wife of 59 years, Isabel Aguilera y Supervielle Selinger of Topsham, Maine; his son, Maurice A. Selinger, III, of Freeport and his wife Cynthia Furman Selinger; and two granddaughters, Emily and Hallie.