Obituary - Saul Zatz

Written by Karen Zatz

Saul Zatz was born on Jan. 19, 1943, to his parents, Meyer and Sarah Zatz of Atlantic City, New Jersey. He lived a life filled with the love of his wife and children and dedicated in service to the Jewish community. He is survived by his adored wife, Lea Zatz; his cherished children, Harold Zable (Chris) and Karen Zatz (Paul Bloom); as well as five grandchildren that he was enormously proud of: Seve Zatzenbloom, Mira Zatzenbloom, Willa Zatzenbloom, Rebecca Zable and Aether Zable. He is also survived by his beloved older brother, Paul Zatz (Laura) as well as his niece, Rachel Bauer and his nephew, David Zatz (Jane). He passed away on Sept. 6, 2024, after a long battle with a variety of chronic health conditions.

Saul grew up in a small apartment in Atlantic City, where his early academic brilliance was noted by the local paper in an article titled “The Zatzes: They tailored brilliance.” Whether building robots on the boardwalk or wowing teachers with his academic excellence, e was a genius with all things mechanical and mathematical. He graduated from Atlantic City High School, and was awarded a full-ride scholarship to enroll as a student at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y. He majored in physics and minored in philosophy. He loved to tell his children and grandchildren about the many jobs he held as a young adult, managing restaurants and camp kitchens, including two very special summers working at Camp Ramah Berkshires under the leadership of Chaim Potok. He started his career as a senior component design engineer at Burroughs in Maryland. Next, he worked as a parts reliability engineer at Westing house Aerospace, where he was a very proud of his work building camera components that were used for the Apollo moon mission. In 1972, he moved to Orlando to start working at Martin Marietta, which later became Lockheed Martin. At Martin he was twice recognized for being one of their top 100 employees. As a senior aerospace engineer there, he helped to design missile guidance systems. He also earned an MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology, which helped him in his management role at Lockheed.

Saul met his beloved wife, Lea, at a National Convention of Atid, the United Synagogue Youth college-age organization. Being an active member of his congregation was always important to Lea and Saul. Over the years Saul often served on the boards of congregations in Orlando, Boynton Beach and Sarasota, helping with finance and administrative management.

He was a member of Congregation Ohev Shalom in Maitland, Fla., for over 30 years. At Ohev, he and Lea started the Maasim Tovim program, which gathered and prepared food for homeless people living at the Orlando Coalition for the Homeless. To date, this program has served over 100,000 meals to those in need. This program was awarded two prestigious Solomon Shechter awards from national United Synagogue and was mentioned as a model project in Danny Siegel’s book “Good People.” Saul was also a board member at Temple Torat Emet in Boynton Beach. Most recently he was a member of Temple Beth Sholom in Sarasota, Fla. He supported the local community by serving on the TBS Board, helping on many projects related to finance and renovation of the building. As vice president and treasurer, his dedicated, diligent and practical work helped to continue the success of the congregation.

Saul’s values of love of the Jewish people and pursuit of education will live on in his children and grandchildren, his greatest legacy.

In Saul’s memory, donations can be made to All Faiths Food Bank, https://allfaithsfoodbank.org/donate/, Diabetes Research, https://diabetes.org and the Tikkun committee of Temple Beth Sholom, https://templebethsholomfl.shulcloud.com/payment.php.