Hon. Mark Litowitz(1929-2020)
·
Jan
9, 2020
Hon. Mark E. Litowitz
January 10, 1929—January 9, 2020
The Honorable Mark E. Litowitz died on
January 9, 2020 after a brief illness, one day before his 91st birthday.
A lifelong resident of the Trenton area,
Judge Litowitz was the first child of Carl Litowitz and Anne (Edelman)
Litowitz, both of Trenton. He attended Trenton Central High School and
Pennington Prep before attending Rutgers University, where he received his
undergraduate and law degrees. At Trenton High, he met Selma Urken. They
married in 1951 and he remained devoted to her until her death in 2005.
Judge Litowitz was a veteran of the Korean
War, where he served in the Army Counterintelligence Corps. Upon his return to
the States, he embarked on a distinguished legal career that began at the law
firm of Montis and Litowitz. In 1964, he became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in
the Trenton office of the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1967, he was appointed
Judge of Worker’s Compensation, eventually becoming the Chief Judge of
Compensation for the State of New Jersey, a position he held for over two
decades. During his tenure, Judge Litowitz presided over and decided thousands
of cases involving New Jersey workers and employers while earning the
admiration and respect of litigants, their attorneys, and court personnel.
In 1990, Governor Florio appointed Judge
Litowitz Director of New Jersey’s Department of Worker’s Compensation. In that
capacity, Judge Litowitz oversaw the State’s Worker’s Compensation system.
Following retirement from public
service in the mid-nineties, Judge Litowitz returned to private practice,
becoming of-counsel to the Princeton law firm Hill Wallack. Judge
Litowitz received numerous honors and awards.
Throughout his adult life, Judge Litowitz was
active in the Trenton Jewish community, serving on the Board of Directors of the Jewish
Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks and the Greenwood House, the Jewish Home
for the Aged. In 1998, he and Selma received The State of Israel Independence
Issue Award, recognizing their years of service and philanthropy.
Judge Litowitz is survived by
children Robert (Mariah) of Washington, D.C., Debra Frank of Yardley, Pa., and
Carol Golden (Andrew) of Princeton, N.J., grandchildren Dana, Drew, Reid, and
Selma Litowitz, David and Matthew Frank, and Jackson and Elliott Golden, a
sister, Natalie Fulton, and niece Susan Talbot (Richard). A daughter-in-law,
Karen Dubin, predeceased him.
He was one of the founding members of the revitalized Trenton Jewish Historical
Society, of which his wife, Selma was president. (Picture below)
Funeral services were Sunday, January 12, at 1
pm at Orland’s Ewing Memorial Chapel, 1534 Pennington Road, Ewing, N.J. Burial
will follow in Fountain Lawn Memorial Park, Ewing, N.J.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that
contributions in Judge Litowitz’s memory be made to Greenwood House, 53 Walter
Street, Ewing, NJ 08628. www.greenwoodhouse.org.
