Muriel Borin, long-time Great Neck resident and advocate for women’s issues and the environment, died Sept. 14 in hospice care at the Tuttle Center in Port Washington. She was 90.
Borin, who until last year lived in the two-story Great Neck home she bought with her late husband Louis in 1956.
She is remembered for her involvement both in the social issues she cared about deeply and in the lives of her friends and neighbors.
“She picked up new friends up until the end of her life,” said her son Glenn. “She was always interested in hearing about people’s lives and problems. She gave a sympathetic ear to the people she met.”
Borin was born in New York City Oct. 2, 1921 to Benjamin Frankel, the owner of a men’s clothing business, and his wife Ceil Frankel, a homemaker. She attended public school in the Bronx and Queens, attained a bachelor’s degree from the City University of New York’s Hunter College and gained a master’s degree from the Pennsylvania School of Social Work. She spent much of her career working for the New York Department of Education as a school social worker.
She and her husband Louis, who had served in the United States Army and the Office of Strategic Services during the Second World War, met in 1947 at a resort in the Catskills and were married the next year. The couple moved to Elmhurst, Queens before settling in Great Neck in 1956 – where Borin spent the rest of her life.
“When they were living in Elmhurst she talked to someone who was running the nursery school that my sister was going to – [the teacher] told [Borin] that she should move to Great Neck if she wanted her kids to get a good education in the public schools, so she did,” Glenn said. “She had to convince my father out of the convenience of living in an apartment near the subway. He was duly convinced.”
Borin was active in the feminist, environmental and anti-war movements, and was a member of numerous social organizations including the League of Women Voters and the Sierra Club. When she was not engaged in activism, Borin also enjoyed quieter pursuits – she was an avid bird-watcher and gardener.
“She enjoyed having the garden with a lot of flowers in the back yard, she liked spending a lot of time [out there]… eating meals outside in the warm weather, talking to the neighbors over the fence,” said Glenn.
Borin was also a long-time member of Temple Isaiah in Great Neck.
She is survived by her children Iris Schifeling and Glenn Borin, her grandsons Jeremy, Todd Daniel and Matthew and her step-sister Faith Marshall.
A funeral service was held last Sunday at Riverside-Nassau North Chapel. It was attended by family and friends, and officiated by Theodore Tsuruoka of Temple Isaiah.
