Longtime jUNe Day hospitality chair, poll worker, RTM member, proud Staples High School graduate and avid “06880” reader and commenter Arline Gertzoff died peacefully yestrday morning at St. Vincent’s Hospital.
She had been diagnosed recently with esophogeal cancer.
Her friend Jennifer Johnson called her “a lifetime Westporter, and truly a citizen of the world. She was a proud, dyed-in-the-wool Democrat,” but also “a champion of democracy and international understanding.”
She had many friends across the political aisle too. She was serving her third term as a District 3 member on Westport’s non-partisan Representative Town Meeting.
In her 25 years as hospitality chair for Westport’s jUNe Day, she promoted world peace through friendly interaction between UN visitors and their local hosts.
She spent 20 years as an Election Day poll worker, through the Westport League of Women Voters.
Arline also served many years as co-chair of the Community Outreach Committee of the Westport Democratic Town Committee (from which she received the 2016 Dora Stuttman Campaign Leadership Award). She was a longtime member of the board of the Democratic Women of Westport.
DTC chair Mark Friedman said, “Arline devoted her life to service and to community.Through her work in education, politics and civic organizations, she strengthened the fabric of our civil society and touched the lives of people in Westport and around the world…..
“Arline created a family of friends and admirers and imbued her friendships with insight, wit and love.”
Arline Gertzoff