Margaret Krumholz, president of Disc Graphics in Hauppauge, dies at 58

Margaret M. Krumholz, president of Hauppauge-based Disc Graphics Inc., died Thursday, a week after suffering a brain aneurysm. She was 58.

Krumholz, one of the most prominent women executives on Long Island, joined Disc Graphics, a specialty printer, in 1994 as controller and rapidly moved up the ranks, said Don Sinkin, chairman of the board and chief executive. She became president 12 years ago.

"She had a work ethic that was incredible," said Sinkin, yet managed to balance family life as well. "Nobody got shortchanged in Margaret's life."

Robert Creighton, managing partner at Uniondale-based law firm Farrell Fritz PC, said he knew Krumholz as a child in Smithtown, where they both grew up, and reconnected with her in his role as outside counsel to Disc Graphics.

"There was no halfway with her," Creighton said. "She was all in, whether it was her career, family [or] friends. You couldn't have an acquaintance relationship with Margaret. She dug into everything."

One longtime friend, Maureen Putman of Bellmore, said Krumholz lived life with a passion.

"She walked into a room and it was a party," she said. "I'm only one of many who consider Margaret a best friend."

Ryan Krumholz, 25, of Bayside, Queens, said that his mother was healthy and vibrant until the moment she was stricken while on the porch of her Smithtown home on Sept. 14.

"We were bouncing around the house," discussing plans for Ryan's upcoming wedding over glasses of wine, he said. "This came as a complete shock."

Meghan Krumholz, 31, an aid worker for a nongovernmental organization in Irbil, Iraq, said that when her mother was 17 she took notice of a young man who worked at a neighborhood service station in Smithtown, Thomas Krumholz.

"She would come every day and buy one gallon of gas," Meghan Krumholz said. On other days, Margaret Blomberg would let the air out of her bicycle tire and go to the station to fill it up.

"She would look for any excuse," Meghan said. Eventually, Thomas Krumholz, then 21, took notice and they began dating. They were married on Nov. 6, 1982.

Kathleen Tomlinson, U.S. magistrate judge for the Eastern District of New York, said Krumholz served on a merit selection committee that screens candidates to become magistrate judges for the district covering Nassau and Suffolk counties and the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. 

Federal magistrate judges oversee the discovery phases of trials before turning the cases over to district court judges.  

Tomlinson, who recommended Krumholz to fill one of the two nonlawyer slots on the committee, said she brought "tremendous insights" to that role.

"People said to me that she asks great questions," Tomlinson said. "As a nonlawyer, you look at this from a different perspective."

Thomas Krumholz,  who owns an industrial marketing business, said that his "multi-tasking" wife loved being summoned once or twice a year when a judicial vacancy opened up.

As talented as she was as an executive, he said, "her real strengths were interpersonal skills."

Krumholz also is survived by her mother, Virginia Blomberg, 87, of Littleton, Colorado, daughter Tara Krumholz, 29, of Alexandria, Virginia, and son Sean Krumholz, 22, of Providence.

Her surviving siblings, all in Colorado, are sister Kathy Hull of Littleton and brothers Bill Blomberg of Parker and John Blomberg of Lone Tree. She was predeceased by her brother Jimmy Blomberg of upstate Fair Haven.

Visitation 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Tuesday at Moloney's Funeral Home, 840 Wheeler Rd., Hauppauge, is being followed by a funeral Mass at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, 280 E. Main St., Smithtown, with burial at St. John of God Cemetery, 118 Wheeler Rd., Central Islip.

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Krumholz may be made to the Neuro Intensive Care Unit at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip through the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation by calling 631-376-4365.

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By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.