Fritz Samuel Noymer

Fritz Samuel Noymer (né Neumetzger)

24 November 1923 – 6 February 2022

On 6 February 2022, Fritz S. Noymer passed away peacefully, aged 98, in his home in Weston, Massachusetts, where he had lived for over 51 years.  He was born in November 1923 in Karlsruhe, Germany.  In November 1937, Fritz fled Nazism and came to the United States with his parents and two younger brothers, Arthur and Bernard.  The Neumetzger family settled in Brookline, and Fritz graduated Brookline High School and Boston University.  His education at BU was interrupted by service in the US Army during the second world war, during which he served as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps.  During the war, his father Eugene would change the family (and business) name to Noymer, to make it less German-sounding, due to wartime anti-German sentiment.  Fritz followed suit, legally changing his surname to Noymer after his military discharge.  In 1964, after a two-year courtship, he married Luciana Simor.  His lifelong career was in the family business, Noymer Leather Goods, started by his father, from which he retired in 1997 as president.  He traveled the world for business and pleasure.  Fritz was a devoted husband, and loving father and grandfather.

Fritz had many interests, including art and classical music; he was a strong supporter of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  He was an avid gardener, and every weekend could be found in his garden, getting exercise through constant transplanting of shrubs and meticulous maintenance of the property down to the last leaf.  In his retirement, among other garden projects, he created a Japanese-style garden in his yard.  Fritz also enjoyed skiing, both cross-country and downhill.  In the 1960s, he would go spring skiing on Mount Washington’s Tuckerman’s Ravine, and he continued downhill skiing into his early 80s.  In the aftermath of the “Blizzard of ‘78,” he donned cross-country skis in search of an open store for milk.  He was a voracious reader of nonfiction books, especially history.  He leaves Luciana, his wife of 57 years, two children, Erica, of Lowell, Mass., and Andrew, of Irvine, Calif., as well as former daughter in law Ndola Prata of El Sobrante, Calif., and his granddaughter, Neia Prata of Oakland, Calif.  Donations in lieu of flowers can be sent to Jewish Family & Children’s Service, Waltham, Mass. https://www.jfcsboston.org/  There will be a small graveside remembrance and burial in Linwood Cemetery, Weston, on Wednesday 9 February 2022 at noon.  Due to covid, an outdoor memorial will be planned for the summer.