Patricia Kreindler Strongin liked to tell stories about her childhood at Grossinger’s Hotel in the Catskills, where her father served as general manager. She ran through the kitchens, shuffled cards for bridge players and, now and then, short-sheeted a guest’s bed.

That sense of fun stayed with her throughout her life. “She was just so happy to be with family at all times,” her son, Andrew Strongin, said. “Present and joyous and playful.”

Strongin, a longtime Washington-area Jewish community leader and former president of Temple Sinai Congregation, died on Jan. 2 in Bethesda. She was 87.

Patricia — known to family and friends as Pat, and in her Grossinger’s stories as “Patsy” — was born on Jan. 16, 1938, in Manhattan to David Kreindler and Ann Levin Kreindler. The family lived in Liberty, New York, because of her father’s work at Grossinger’s, the kosher resort that drew entertainers, athletes and Jewish families to the Catskills for generations.

For Strongin, the hotel was not a seasonal destination but the setting of daily life. Her closest childhood friends were Mary Ann and Tania Grossinger, and the children had wide access to the property and its routines.

“She was a self-professed and very proud rascal,” Andrew Strongin said. “They had the run of the place.”

Strongin was also a competitive athlete from a young age. She and her brothers were speed skaters, part of a family culture that prized determination and performance. She skated for the Grossinger’s team and won multiple Silver Skates competitions at Madison Square Garden.

“That was something she was very proud of,” Andrew Strongin said.

She went on to Cornell University, graduating with a liberal arts degree in 1959. During a summer secretarial job at a law firm in Monticello, New York, she met Seymour “Sy” Strongin, an attorney. They married on July 12, 1959, and soon moved to the Washington, D.C., area when he took a job at the National Labor Relations Board. They settled in Chevy Chase and raised their three children, Laurie, Andrew and Abby.

Strongin spent her professional career at the Bureau of National Affairs, known as BNA, a major publisher of legal and public policy reference materials. She became an indexer, editor and manager, working on labor- and environment-related publications, including the Environmental Daily Reporter. She worked at BNA for about 40 years.

After her death, family members heard from former colleagues whom she had mentored early in their careers.

“She was a role model for women who worked under her,” said Tracey Goldman, her daughter-in-law, who has known the family since she was a teenager. “She earned a solid salary, had a solid job and balanced work and family at a time when that was not common.”

Even with a full-time career, Strongin was involved in Jewish communal life. The family belonged to Temple Sinai Congregation in Washington, where the children attended religious school, became bar and bat mitzvah and were later confirmed.

“For her, Judaism was central to identity,” Andrew Strongin said. “We didn’t talk about it in terms of it being Jewish. It was just what we were and how we were raised.”

Friday night Shabbat dinners were a constant in the home, her daughter, Laurie Strongin, said. Taking responsibility within synagogue life mattered to Strongin, and she became president of Temple Sinai in the early 1980s.

Syma Mendelsohn, a close friend for more than four decades, met Strongin through Temple Sinai board service and worked with her on synagogue projects.

“She was a real consensus builder,” Mendelsohn said. “She could be firm, but she was never confrontational. She always looked for the best way to solve a problem.”

That approach also shaped Strongin’s civic commitments. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she played a leading role in efforts to desegregate schools in Chevy Chase, including Chevy Chase Elementary School, where she served in the PTA.

“There was never any question about what side my family was going to be on,” Andrew Strongin said. “She just did what was right.”

Strongin also supported the movement for Soviet Jewry. Laurie Strongin recalled attending rallies on the National Mall as a child, drawn into the cause through her mother’s commitments.

Later in life, Strongin and her husband spent more time on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where she became active in Temple B’nai Israel in Easton.

At home, her children remember a mother who kept life active and physical. She was outdoorsy and athletic — swimming, biking, skating and skiing — and she brought that energy into family routines.

“She was playful,” Laurie Strongin said. “We all joked that she would never let us win.”
Her devotion to motherhood was shaped in part by a loss in her own adolescence. Strongin’s mother died when Pat was 15.

“All she wanted to do as an adult was to be the mom that she lost,” Andrew Strongin said.

That sense of responsibility returned in 2000, when Strongin retired from BNA to help her daughter’s family during a medical crisis. Laurie Strongin’s son, Henry Goldberg, needed a bone marrow transplant, and Strongin traveled to help care for him and support the family.
Henry died on Dec. 11, 2002, at age 7.

Andrew Strongin said the loss changed her, but she responded by focusing on helping her daughter and grandchildren through their grief.

“What sustained her was being able to help,” he said.

Friends described Strongin as loyal and constant. Mendelsohn said she maintained close friendships over decades and remained optimistic even as her family faced serious challenges.

“She would want to be remembered for her great love of her family and friends,” Mendelsohn said. “She was devoted to people.”

Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.