Herbert Leon Hochberg (z’’l) Passes Away at 95: Supported the Admission of Women to the Scarsdale Town Club

Herbert Leon Hochberg, aged 95, passed away January 7, 2026 at his home in Scarsdale, NY. He was born May 28, 1930 in the Bronx. His father, Aaron Hochberg, migrated from Ukraine to the United States in 1920. In 1928 he returned to his hometown to marry his childhood sweetheart, Lena Heilman, and brought her to the United States.

Herb grew up in modest circumstances but with the love and support of his parents, sister Marilyn, and a large extended family. He graduated at age 16 from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, winning awards in general studies and in mathematics. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (the first Christopher Columbus graduate to do so, he believed), where he majored in electrical engineering. To supplement his parents’ contribution toward his tuition he enrolled in the ROTC, and as an upperclassman participated in a cooperative program with General Electric in which he alternated semesters of subsidized study with semesters of employment. He credited MIT with having changed his life and remained a faithful and generous alumnus.

After graduating from MIT in 1950 Herb initially worked as an engineer, then attended Harvard Business School, graduating in 1953. He fulfilled his ROTC commitment by working in Philadelphia for the Signal Corps Supply Agency; a high point of his service was receiving a reward for successfully extracting payments from non-performing suppliers. In 1963 he joined Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. in New York as an investment banker, and worked there until his retirement. He held various roles at Ladenburg but was particularly skilled in performing due diligence analysis for public offerings. His research led the firm to turn down a number of companies that turned out to be unsound; conversely, none of the companies he approved for underwriting was liable for losses to investors. After his retirement he continued to perform due diligence analyses on a consultant basis.

Herb met Audrey (Golden) during his first year at Harvard Business School when he crashed a freshman mixer at Radcliffe College. They saw each other again at a subsequent mixer, after which Audrey invited him to afternoon tea in her dormitory. They dated for several years and married on June 23, 1955. When Audrey went into politics, serving on the Westchester County Board of Legislators from 1971 to 1992, and then in the New York State Assembly until 2000, Herb was her biggest supporter. He rang doorbells for her during every campaign and never complained when her professional duties took her away from the family. He often said that marrying Audrey was the best decision he ever made. Their long and loving marriage ended with Audrey’s death from endometrial cancer in 2005.

After Audrey’s death Herb married her close friend Carol Stix, who had lost her husband Edgar seven years earlier. Having originally hoped for five good years together, they celebrated their nineteenth wedding anniversary on Herb’s 95th birthday, on May 28, 2025.

Herb remained close to his extended family throughout his life. He stayed in touch with many family members and attended bar mitzvahs and weddings around the United States and abroad. In his later years he took on a personal mission of helping younger relatives pay off their student loans.

Besides family, Herb’s other major passion was the outdoors. As a teenager in the Bronx he joined a local Boy Scout troop that went on hikes in Westchester and New Jersey. He later attended Boy Scout Camp and became an Eagle Scout. As an adult he was active in the Westchester Trails Association and the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. He was an enthusiastic hike leader, known for leading challenging hikes. At different times he served as WTA President, Vice President, Membership Chair, and Treasurer, but perhaps the role he enjoyed most was that of Trails Chair, in which he trained and oversaw the group’s volunteer trail maintainers. Herb also served as Treasurer for the NY-NJTC, and helped to field-test the hikes in the organization’s book Walkable Westchester. In recognition of his years of distinguished service, the WTA named him a Life Member and the NY-NJTC awarded him the 2013 Ken Lloyd Award.

Over the course of several years Herb hiked about five hundred miles of the Appalachian trail with his friend Peter Hibbard, and traveled to hike in destinations as diverse as the Dolomites and Morocco’s Atlas Mountains. He was also an avid runner, cross-country skier, and kayaker. His favorite place on Earth was the Grand Canyon.

Herb was happiest when he combined his passions for family and the outdoors. When one of his daughters moved to New Mexico, he joined the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club so that he could plan family visits to coincide with noteworthy hikes. Later, he and Audrey joined their grandchildren and adult children in a series of multi-day whitewater rafting trips that remain treasured memories. When his oldest granddaughter became engaged in 2011, he introduced her fiancé’s family to his own during a spectacular twelve-day, four-generation, multi-family hiking trip to Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland.

In 1977 Herb played a significant role in the decision by the Scarsdale Town Club (now the Town and Village Club) to admit women as members. According to the Scarsdale Inquirer (11/3/1977, p. 1):

The fullest statement in support of admitting women was made by Herbert Hochberg, who served on Marrow’s committee. “We cannot ignore that changes have taken place in the role of women in society” Hochberg said. If the club does not admit women, he predicted that it would continue to play a diminishing role in Scarsdale, becoming a ”small, private club unable to fulfill” the functions set out in its constitution.

Herb is survived by his second wife Carol, his sister Marilyn Littman, daughters Brenda and Judith, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. His oldest daughter Carol predeceased him and Audrey in 1998.

Besides MIT and Harvard Business School, Herb supported SHARE Breast Cancer Support in New York City and Kids in the Canyon.