Henry (A.) Madoff

Henry Alexander Madoff, 96, of West Hartford, CT, died of natural causes at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford on March 12, 2016 surrounded by his family. Born Grigori Aleksandr Vedmedev on February 15, 1920 in the small city of Kherson in the newly created Soviet Union, previously and now once again in Ukraine, his family escaped during the year of his birth when one of his mother’s five sisters claimed the family’s prosperous home in the name of the Revolution and they fled. First to Bulgaria and then to Constantinople, they made their way to Henry Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan when he was three years old. At Ellis Island, the name was changed to Madoff. After serving in the Air Force during World War II and finishing his undergraduate degree at Columbia University, he took over his family’s business and met Adelaide Mittleman. They were married for 67 years and had two children, Emily, who died of breast cancer at the age of 47, and Steven. Harry, as he was called, was an avid amateur photographer, spending weekends driving the streets of New York in a taxi with his best friend and his son, taking black-and-white street photographs in the style of the day. He was a spirited handball and tennis player, and loved to prowl the museums of the city with his wife and children. He is survived by his wife and son, two grandchildren, Lucian and Sloan, and by his brother Jeff.

Service Date: 01/01/1970