Obituary of Burt Leff Hecht

Burt Leff Hecht passed away on Wednesday, August 27, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada in the presence of his family. His multiple binders, the gigabytes of material stored on his computer, and his tireless work and research on geneaology are only the physical evidence that family was more important than anything to him. Not just our historian, he was a loving and supportive father, brother, cousin, uncle who did much more than listen to and collect our stories, he remembered them. The genealogist himself was born on January 19, 1933 in New York City to Isaac and Betty Hecht and had one sister, Alice. He grew up in Monticello, New York, with a big, close circle of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Burt attended school there, K-12, working from a young age in his father's bakery while still finding time to participate in school activities, from baseball to Latin Club. After graduating from Monti High, Burt attended Princeton University and later completed graduate studies at the University of Illinois (M.S.W.) and practiced social work in Chicago and later in Montana. His second career was as an advertising salesman and he traveled the country in this job. He lived in several cities over the decades, Sacramento, California being his favorite and his home for over 20 years. He was active in that city's Jewish Geneaology Society and other local service organizations as an officer and supporting and mentoring those who were new to the groups. A sharp and critical participant in the democratic process, Burt worked as a volunteer to register voters for the 1960s -2008 presidential elections. When not looking at some piece of printed matter or following sports, he loved bird-watching and nature photography. Burt is survived by his children, Valerie Hecht (Karl Sutphin) of Las Vegas, NV/Vallejo, CA and Aaron Hecht of West Yellowstone, MT; his sister Alice Hecht Giedekier of Wyckoff, NJ; his niece Stephanie Wheeler (Ed) and her children, Sabrina and Sebastian Nauta and Edward Wheeler of Puyallup, WA; and his cousin Bryna Scherr of Branford, CT and her children, Peter, Pam, and Tony. While always very generous with his loved ones, Burt lived very simply. In keeping with his lifestyle, and according to his wishes, within the year there will be a simple ash-scattering in "either Atlantic or Pacific Ocean". Or both. Correspondence may be directed to Aaron or Valerie. Appropriate memorial donations could be made to The Southern Poverty Law Center or to The Audubon Society.