I was born in Manhattan.  My family moved to Sunnyside, Long Island City in 1944, and to Flushing, Queens in 1952.

 

          I attended Bronx High School of Science, 1955-1959, and Reed College in Portland, Oregon, 1959-1963; I graduated with a BA in Math and returned to New York City after graduation.

 

          I married in 1963, became separated in 1996, and divorced in 1998.  I have two daughters: Sharon, living in Richmond Hill, who helps her husband run his computer consulting business; they are parents to my two granddaughters, and Miriam, living in Denver, Colorado who is a free-lance classical oboist.

 

          In 1963, I was hired by the consulting firm George B. Buck Consulting Actuary as a pension actuarial trainee {In1966 following the death of the founder, the firm was purchased from the estate by the senior employees and incorporated.}   I became a Consulting Actuary, a federally accredited Enrolled Actuary and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries {in 1997 the firm was acquired by Mellon Bank}.  I retired early in 1998 with a reasonable pension (one advantage of working for an employee benefits consulting firm!)

 

          Since retiring from paid work, I have served in a number of volunteer capacities, including six years as an elected member of the Board of Directors of my housing coop, Morningside Heights Housing Corporation (three years as President of the Board). Until this year, I also served on a number of committees of that Board and continue to take in interest in coop affairs. 

 

          I also volunteer at my Synagogue, where I served for nearly 20 years as a member of the Board of Trustees and recently stepped down after 13 years as Treasurer of the Sisterhood.  Currently I serve as Coordinator of Volunteers for an outreach program at the Synagogue that assists homeless mothers with children. I also represent the Synagogue as a member of the Board of Directors of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger (a large food pantry and provider of social services on Manhattan’s Upper West Side) and volunteer twice a month at the Synagogue’s Homeless Shelter.

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Joanna Kapner

New York, 2016

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