Jeffrey Philipson (1940 – 2024) 

New York businessman and artist, Jeffrey Philipson, 83, of Riverdale, New York, died in The Bronx, New York on January 30, 2024 due to complications resulting from Multiple Sclerosis. 

Jeffrey was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 13, 1940, the middle son of George Philipson and Sarah Altschuler and brother to Ira and Steven. Jeffrey attended The Wheatley School in Roslyn, New York, where he made lifelong friends with Eddie Kritzler, Charlie Shapiro, and many fellow classmates, before attending the University of Vermont. At UVM he befriended Fred Goldberg, future godfather to his sons. Jeffrey left school early to take over the family business from his ailing father. As a business owner and soon a father of two, Jeffrey was also a self-taught student of fine art, art history, psychology, world history, politics, and biography. 

In Whitestone, New York, as young parents, Jeffrey and his first wife, Andrea Gates, raised their sons, Glenn and Adam, alongside their neighbors Steven and Louise Bergerson and their sons, Eric and Andrew. The families remain lovingly close to this day. 

Jeffrey met the love of his life, Virginia Higgins, in 1980 at a house party in Jersey City. They lived their 40 years together, until her death in 2020, with their cats, Spunky, Toughy, Missy, and Sheba, first in The Breukelen building in Brooklyn Heights, with a breathtaking view of New York Harbor, and then in Riverdale, New York. Virginia’s daughter, Heather Higgins, joined them in Brooklyn Heights in 1984 and Jeffrey loved her as his own daughter. 

Jeffrey and Virginia were thrilled to be grandparents and doted on Adam and Alma’s children, Amanda and Aldan, proudly cheering on their countless academic, theatrical, and sporting accomplishments and hosting birthday parties and an annual Christmas celebration. They also thought of the children of their dear friends and neighbors Robin Weinstein and Paul Alpert, Brandon, Zoe, and Ryan, as their grandchildren, hosting art camp, sleepovers, birthday parties, and an annual Easter egg hunt. 

For over 30 years, Jeffrey was the third generation owner of Philipson Press, innovating as technology and market consolidation transformed the industry, shuttering so many independent printing shops. During his career, he had stores in Bedford Stuyvesant, Wall Street, Greenwich Village, and Tribeca. All of his children were schooled in customer service, working a broom, and operating the shop equipment. Jeffrey maintained the shop at 52 Warren Street until he sold the business and retired in the late 1990s. Jeffrey was a champion and generous supporter of the Tribeca artists and small business people he was so happy to serve and befriend. 

Jeffrey was a talented athlete, excelling at basketball, boxing, and football as a student and at squash as an adult. In the 1980s, his passion for sports was diverted by Multiple Sclerosis, a cruel disease without a cure, which he did not let diminish his life. He sought out cutting edge treatments and purposefully stayed active to keep his body and mind strong and fit. So remarkable was his resilience in the face of the disease, the MS research community raised him up as an astounding success story. Ultimately, he became paralyzed in 2012 and moved to The Hebrew Home, his treehouse overlooking the Henry Hudson River. 

Throughout his adult life, Jeffrey delighted in making abstract sculptures and drawings. He relished his long talks with his Aunt Sara Pildes about art theory and technique. Her stories about painting every day inspired his creative process as did the instruction from his teachers, including Elisa Eisenman. He adored and was fascinated by trees; he became particularly attached to the ones he saw every day and featured them in some of his art. He was also a lover of music. He played the Dulcimer as a young man and the harmonica more recently, often improvising ditties for his family or to entertain himself. 

A touchstone moment for Jeffrey was when family and friends traveled to Alma’s hometown, Santa Maria Coatepec, Mexico in 2001 for Adam and Alma’s wedding. The three Philipson brothers and their wives laughed their way through great traveling adventures and were the main attraction on the dance floor after the wedding. 

If you knew Jeffrey, you knew he was very witty and loved both to be funny and to enjoy the humor of others. When telling a story, he would cock an eyebrow or make an exaggerated face to great effect. What is perhaps most remarkable about Jeffrey is that throughout the adversity he experienced, he retained his inherent optimism, patience, and gracious cheerfulness. May Jeffrey’s memory be a blessing to all who loved him. 

Jeffrey Philipson was preceded in death by his life partner, Virginia Higgins, and his older brother, Ira Philipson. He is survived by his sons, Glenn Lawson (Joe) and Adam Philipson (Alma), his step-daughter, Heather Higgins, his grandchildren, Amanda, Aldan, and Aria, his younger brother Steve Philipson (Barbara), his sister-in-law Rebecca Philipson, and many loving nieces and nephews and their children. Jeffrey and Virginia’s family will be eternally grateful to the Weinstein-Alpert family for their unending love and support throughout their years in Riverdale. 

The family will make arrangements for private gatherings with loved ones to celebrate Jeffrey’s life.