Jack Solnik, Army veteran who put family before himself, dies at 92

Jack Solnik was a family man.

He was the honest, down-to-earth, loving patriarch of the Solnik family who loved to share his passions like chess, tennis and music with his wife, three sons and six grandsons, his wife and son said — and he always put family before himself.

So much so that they can’t think of a time he had ever missed a family meal, whether it was a formal event or just dinner at home after commuting from work in Brooklyn to Roslyn, where he lived for 38 years.

"He worked hard. But work and money were not his life — his family was his life," said his wife, Renee Solnik, 83, of West Windsor, New Jersey.

"He was really an honest man and a good man. It sounds so simple, but it’s not," she said.

Solnik died in his sleep on June 27 in New Jersey, where he had lived with his wife since 2002, his family said. He was 92. He displayed the first signs of dementia nearly 20 years ago and later developed Parkinson's disease, Renee Solnik said.

He is also survived by his three sons, Claude of Plainview, Raymond of San Jose, California, and Bernard of Bethesda, Maryland; and six grandsons.

Jack Solnik’s life began when he was born to parents Aron and Rosa on Dec. 20, 1928, in Berlin. In the 1930s, his family fled Germany for France to escape Nazi control, Renee Solnik said. They later escaped France once it became occupied, fleeing on a ship to Martinique, but were stopped in Morocco and placed in a detention camp, she said.

"His family was always one step ahead of Hitler, trying to save their lives," she said.

A friend of the family helped get them out of the camp, and, by 1941, they arrived in the United States to settle in Manhattan, she said. He had his bar mitzvah shortly after, she said.

"He always talked about his father and admired the fact that his father was wise enough and able to leave," Renee Solnik said.

Jack Solnik became a U.S. citizen and served for two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He worked for a textile recycling business started by his father, which later became his own.

Years after meeting Renee on a blind date set up by family, they married on May 7, 1959, and lived in Forest Hills, Queens, before settling in Roslyn in 1964 to better suit their growing family. They stayed there until 2002.

Jack Solnik was known for having a great appreciation for the arts, whether it was opera, dancing with his wife, picking up a tune on the piano, or literature, Renee Solnik said. He was an avid tennis and chess player, and was also known for his unique accent, his family said — a combination of German and French.

Solnik’s youngest son, Bernard Solnik, 56, said he fondly recalls his father teaching him and his brothers how to ski, putting them on skis "when we could barely walk" on the golf course at Christopher Morley Park in Roslyn. And he would play chess with all three of his sons at once, with chess boards lined up across the bed.

"It was never a competition," Bernard Solnik said, adding his dad just wanted to play any game or sport for fun.

Playing chess was a notable part of Jack Solnik’s life — he taught his three sons and grandsons and "played until the very end," Renee Solnik said. To honor Jack Solnik, the family has supported the Manhattan-based organization The Gift of Chess, which teaches chess to children. Its first summer camp will be called The Jack Solnik Gift of Chess Summer Camp.

"My dad gave a lot of strength to the family unit in his life, and even in his passing, he’s doing that," Bernard Solnik said.

By Erin Serpico

erin.serpico@newsday.com

Erin Serpico is an assistant web producer who joined Newsday in November 2018. Originally from New Jersey, she now covers community events and produces local content for newsday.com while also helping run the homepage.