A Brooklyn girl who could go from camping to diamonds with equal class, Anne Fass managed her husband’s dental practice in Altamont for 35 years while remaining devoted to her family.

On Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, she died peacefully at home surrounded by her family.  She was 63.

“She loved life, she loved doing things, she loved being with people,” said her husband, Dr. Stuart Fass. “The two of us were a real pair.”

“Most of all she enjoyed encouraging and supporting her children and later her grandchildren,” her family wrote in a tribute. “Through it all, she maintained an inseparable relationship with her husband of 42 years.”

Born in 1952 to the late Mildred (née Kessler) and Harold Goodman, she was a proud native of Brooklyn. Her father had a television repair business and her mother worked for Federated Department Stores, which became Macy’s.

“She was very active, very bright,” said Dr. Fass, describing his wife in her youth. “She got along great with her brother.”

The family moved to Queens — Howard Beach — when she was 11. “She went to a tough high school,” said Dr. Fass, graduating from John Adams High School in Queens. Mrs. Fass went on to earn a bachelor of arts degree in English with a teaching certificate from the University at Albany.

It was here that she met her future husband.  She moved to Buffalo, New York to join him as he pursued his graduate training in dentistry.

The Fasses were married in December of 1973 and returned to the Albany area in 1976.  They settled in Altamont in 1978, and relocated to Glenville in 2014.

“Everyone is telling me we had the marriage they looked up to,” said Dr. Fass. “Our house on Maple Avenue — everyone’s kids ended up there.”

The Fass family was close-knit and took vacations together, often camping as they visited amusement parks. “She went from camping to diamonds seamlessly,” said Dr. Fass of his wife. The Fasses were members of ACE — American Coaster Enthusiasts — and relished riding roller coasters. “We visited five theme parks in nine days,” said Dr. Fass of one family trip.

Mrs. Fass would often be the “hat holder” as her husband and kids rode the roller coasters. “She was not a screamer. She liked the thrill of being with family,” said Dr. Fass.

He described his wife as “the ideal mom” — someone who advocated for and supported her children.

Many times, after returning from roughing it, the Fasses would go out dancing at the Benedicts dance club in Schenectady. They also enjoyed dancing at the annual firemen’s ball in Altamont. “She’d put on her full-length gown and I’d put on my tux,” Dr. Fass recalled. He also said, “She dressed me. I’m not a fashion person.”

Mrs. Fass worked in retail through undergraduate school and had a flair for window design and merchandising that translated to unique decorating in her homes later on.  She worked for Westinghouse in Buffalo in a business office, which was a segue into her career, managing her husband’s dental office in Altamont for 35 years.

“My dental office is blessed with staff we’ve had for many years in large part because of Anne being the office manager,” Dr. Fass said. When Mrs. Fass became ill a year-and-a-half ago, “It only took three people to do her job,” said Dr. Fass.

Mrs. Fass worked for a lot of organizations. “We always volunteered together,” said her husband. Mrs. Fass did volunteer work for the Guilderland Lions Club, Achilles Figure Skating Club, and Kadima youth group at her synagogue occupied some of her time.

She was also a devoted trustee at the Darrow School in New Lebanon, New York for 13 years. The couple’s third child attended the school and flourished there, Dr. Fass said. Describing the Shaker community site where the boarding school is located, Dr. Fass said, “His dorm was from the late 1700s.” The school’s “hands to work” credo — where students volunteered for community causes — fit Mrs. Fass’s life’s philosophy.

“Anne had an incredible ability to judge people,” said Dr. Fass “She swayed the board to hire the school’s first female headmistress.”

In her spare time, Mrs. Fass enjoyed knitting, painting, and interior decorating. She originally planned to knit an afghan for each of her seven grandchildren to give them as they left home to go to college. “Once they were old enough to know their favorite color, she knitted them a full-size afghan in that color in different patterns,” said Dr. Fass. She gave the afghans to her grandchildren the week before she died.

“She was working on number six and was almost done. It will get finished,” said her husband.

Mrs. Fass faced her impending death “with incredible strength and the same class she handled everything with,” said her husband.

Dr. Fass concluded through tears, “It was a two-way marriage. We always talked about things right to the end. We always were on the same page, doing things together.”

****

Anne Fass is survived by her husband, Stuart Fass; her son Adam Fass and his wife, Megan, of Bothell, Washington; her daughter, Tracy McKnerney, and her husband, Chris, of Medway, Massachusetts; her son Jonathan Fass and his wife, Christine, of Glenville, New York; her brother, Alan Goodman, and his wife, Linda; her adored grandchildren, Benjamin, Nathan, Gabrielle, Sophia, Tucker, Kira, and Oliver; her niece Dara Goodman, nephew Andrew Fass, and niece Lisa Zucker.

Services were held at Congregation Olav Shalom in Albany on Feb. 23 with interment following in Olav Shalom Cemetery on Church Road in Guilderland. Arrangments are by the Levine Memorial Chapel in Albany.

Memorial contributions may be made to Congregation Ohav Shalom’s Capital Campaign Fund or to the Darrow School.
— Melissa Hale-Spencer