World War II vet Louis Dworkin is seen at his North Valley...

World War II vet Louis Dworkin is seen at his North Valley Stream home on May 14, 2015. Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.

As a young recruit, Brooklyn native Louis Dworkin faced the guns of Nazis in the famous Battle of the Bulge, and he shared a role in the victory that historians say was the turning point for the Allied powers to win World War II.

Long after the war, as a social worker for New York City, the North Valley Stream resident helped others overcome monumental problems in their personal lives throughout a 33-year career.

These were just some of the contributions that Dworkin made on an international scale and in the private worlds of his clients, said his wife, who added that the decorated warrior and social worker was the center of her universe for over 50 great years until he died on April 22 of the novel coronavirus at Hospice Inn in Melville.

He was 94.

“He loved his family,” said Rena Dworkin, his wife. “He was a good person. He was the kind of person who told you what you might not want to hear. He was very straight, and he never lied.”

Dworkin was born to Jennie and Abraham Dworkin, a homemaker and painter, on Sept. 30, 1925. He attended public schools in the East New York section of Brooklyn and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School.

In World War II he served in the 75th Infantry Division of the Army and was part of a second wave of Allied soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge, which took place at the end of 1944 and beginning of 1945.

That battle left more than 19,000 American soldiers dead, historians have said, more than any other conflict in the war.

For his military service, Dworkin received the Bronze Star Medal, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and Bronze Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge 1st Award and Honorable Service lapel button.

In 2012, he was awarded the French Chevalier La Legion D'Honneur.

Civilian life would bring on new personal and professional challenges.

Dworkin enrolled in college at New York University and graduated in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

He married Rita Spierer in October 1950 and had a son, Keith Dworkin, now of Northport. The union ended in divorce and Dworkin married the former Rena Tomares in July 1967, not long after he had met her once he moved to Rochdale Village in Queens.

“The first day he met me, he told me he was going to marry me,” Rena Dworkin said. “We had a nice life. He was a wonderful husband and wonderful partner.”

Keith Dworkin said his father joined the New York City Department of Welfare in 1958 and worked there until he retired in 1991, rising from a case worker to a supervisor.

“He chose a career in social work because of his education, understanding and compassion for humanity,” Keith Dworkin said. “Lou's eclectic personality enabled him to connect with many people. His sense of humor was appreciated with the delivery of a Borscht Belt Jackie Mason persona. He was an excellent paternal mentor with a love of science.”

Relatives said Dworkin’s interests were varied, including fishing, mineralogy, ornithology, photography, botany, geology, astronomy and stamp, African mask and art collecting. He enjoyed Classical, opera and folk music. He was an avid reader of books and Time magazine and a lover of poetry.

Besides his wife and son, Louis Dworkin is survived by a sister, Renee Berkowitz of Plantation, Florida; a stepdaughter, Miriam Kurland of Williamsburg, Massachusetts; a cousin, Rene Kelmenson of Boynton Beach, Florida; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A graveside service was performed on April 26 by Star of David Memorial Chapels at Wellwood Cemetery in Farmingdale.

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