Benjamin Symcha Goldstein

Benjamin Symcha Goldstein, of Lexington, Massachusetts, passed away on March 6, 2021. Ben was born on August 13, 1929, in Radom, Poland, to Moshe and Roza (Gluzman) Goldstein, and had a sister, Osna, and a brother, Nachman. Ben is survived by his wife of 65 years, Marie; their son Daniel; their daughter Miriam Altman and her husband Jeff Rogers, and her children Evan, Lee and Seth Altman; and their son David and his wife Asa Engqvist-Goldstein, and their children Soshana, Samuel and Ethan.

Ben was a Holocaust survivor whose family was killed by the Nazis during World War II. In the summer of 1942, when Ben was 13 years old, the Radom ghetto was liquidated and Ben, his younger brother, and his mother were marched to the train station for deportation to the Treblinka death camp. As they walked, SS troops called out for others to join a column of Jewish workers passing by them. Ben’s mother, realizing this was his only chance to survive, pushed him towards the column and told him, “Go.” He reluctantly left and marched off with the workers. Ben survived the war working as a slave laborer in German factories and concentration camps in Poland and Germany, and he survived selection for the gas chambers at Auschwitz. He eventually was sent to the Vaihingen concentration camp in Germany to work building an armaments factory. The camp was liberated by the French First Army on April 7, 1945.

In 1946, Ben emigrated to the United States because, as he explained, it was “like a shining star.” He lived with his new foster parents in Cambridge, MA., Drs. Richard and Helene Hoffmann, and their children Ruth and Sascha, and he maintained a close, life-long relationship with them.

Despite missing school from 1939-1946, Ben graduated high school in 1948. In 1952, he graduated with a B.S. in Physics from Harvard College, where he was captain of the soccer team and All New England his senior year. In 1956, Ben earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. During the Korean War, Ben interrupted his graduate studies to serve stateside at the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, where he did ballistics research.

Ben’s professional career focused on designing and developing radar, satellite, and telecommunications systems. From 1961 to 1966, he worked at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory as a lead designer for the Unified S-Band communications system for the Apollo moon missions, which was used in the Command Module, Lunar Module, and Lunar Rover. From 1966 to 1971, Ben was employed at NASA where he helped lead the development of a new communications system for America’s first Mission to Mars program. When the NASA center was converted to a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Ben worked on upgrading and designing the country’s air traffic control system. He closed his career working on the global Search and Rescue Satellite Tracking (SARSAT) system, which coordinates the satellites of several countries to locate and communicate with distressed ships at sea. Ben retired in 1993 and lived until his death in the same house in Lexington that he and Marie purchased in 1962.

Ben was a devoted husband and father and structured his life to spend as much time as he could with his wife and children. He was always home for dinner and the family would talk about their lives and have spirited debates about current events. An avid soccer fan, he was one of several people who started the Lexington Youth Soccer League in 1972 and served as its president. Ben loved to garden and the great outdoors, and he enjoyed hiking in New England and visiting national parks and nature reserves. Ben also enjoyed vacationing on Cape Cod with his family.

Knowledge was paramount for Ben and he encouraged and supported his children's college and graduate school educations. He enjoyed reading about ancient civilizations, engaging in discussions about them, and learning lessons from events of days gone past, other peoples’ lives, and his own experiences. Because of various situations he found himself in during the war where he needed to make quick decisions to ensure his safety or survival, one of his favorite pieces of advice was, “When life gives you an opportunity, take it!" Ben was eternally grateful to America for leading the Allied victory in World War II and for giving him a second chance in life.

Donations in Ben’s memory may be made to Jewish Families and Children Services (https://www.jfcsboston.org/Give/Ways-To-Give) or to the charity of your choice.