- Date Of Death: November 14, 2016
- State: New Mexico
Claire Marie Goldsmith (York), 92, died on Monday, November 14, 2016 in her room at the Beehive Assisted Living Home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Claire had a stroke, was on hospice care, and was lovingly attended by her family and friends during the final week of her life. She was a lifelong advocate of education, woman’s rights, compassionate medical care, and humane treatment of animals. Claire had a broad and brilliant mind, was an avid reader, a gifted writer, a skilled teacher, and was known for her razor sharp verbal bouts, especially when skewering a cruel or hypocritical person. Throughout her life Claire excelled at academics, both as a student and as a teacher. She graduated at age 16 with honors from Richmond Hill High School in Queens, New York in May, 1941. She attended New York University Medical College School of Nursing at Bellevue Hospital on a full scholarship, was in the WWII Cadet Nursing Corp , and graduated in 1945 with the highest scholastic average in her class. She worked at Bellevue for several years, eventually taking charge of a medicine ward at age 27. She married Richard Goldsmith in 1951 and moved to Rochester, NY shortly thereafter. In 1960, Claire moved to Silver City, New Mexico with Richard and her three children. She subsequently started a program to train nursing aides at Hillcrest Hospital in 1965, a program to train Licensed Practical Nurses at New Mexico State University in 1974, and a similar program at Western New Mexico University in 1981. She obtained a Master’s Degree in English and taught Composition at Western New Mexico University. She served on the Gila Regional Medical Center Foundation board of directors and was founder and first board president of the El Refugio shelter for battered women in Silver City. She was also active in the Animal Humane Society and cared for numerous pet dogs, including five dogs at one time in her later years. For her many accomplishments she received the Governor’s Award as an Outstanding Woman of New Mexico in 1998. In her spare time, she managed a household, cared for her own mother, and raised four children. She was an inspiration to many people in her lifetime and is missed by her family and friends.
Claire is survived by her daughters, Cheryl Spahr, with husband Thomas, and Diane Strong, with husband Warren, of Albuquerque; her sons, Steven Goldsmith, with significant other, Karen Truitt of Rochester, MN and Daniel Goldsmith of Tucson, AZ; her brother, Charles York, with wife Ida of Dunwoody, GA; grandchildren, Richard Moran, with wife Clara Moran, Kevin Holmes, with wife Sunny, Alison Ojanen-Goldsmith, Robyne Wood, and husband Chris, Benjamin Ojanen-Goldsmith, Sanna Mairet, with husband Paul, Erin Moazzami; and step-grandson, Matthew Spahr, with wife, Dagmar. She is also survived by seven great-grandchildren, Colin Dimas, Alalia and Magdalena Moran, Lillian and Parker Holmes and Aeden and Patrick Wood. She is predeceased by her beloved granddaughter, Mackenzie Kathleen (Katie) Moran in July, 2008 and husband, Richard in June, 2009.
