- Date Of Birth: September 17, 1951
- Date Of Death: September 15, 2020
- State: New York
Born in St. Louis, MO on September 17, 1951, Departed on September 15, 2020, and resided in Scarsdale, NY
John Auerbacher of Scarsdale NY died on September 15, 2020, of multiple myeloma cancer, sixteen years after their initial diagnosis and days before turning 69. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Patricia “Patsy” Mayer of St. Louis and Ernest Auerbacher of Ludwigshafen, Germany. John is predeceased by his mother and survived by his father and stepmother, his wife, two children, and two brothers. John’s father was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.
John attended Meramec School and John Burroughs School, the University of Wisconsin, and the Julliard School of Dance before transferring to Columbia University from which he received a B.A. in Philosophy. Post-college, he worked as a youth counselor with Abbott House, a server at Tavern on the Green, and a fine furniture-maker, before heading to Hofstra School of Law. As an attorney, he joined several law firms in Manhattan before establishing a solo practice in contracts, real estate, and copyright law.
While skilled as an attorney, John found even greater rewards being a father, coaching Little League and Girls Softball, leading Boy Scout trips, and attending volleyball matches. After a diagnosis of multiple myeloma cancer in 2004, he became a Volunteer Nature Educator with the Sheldrake Environmental Center in Larchmont, NY. More recently, he joined the Scarsdale Conservation Advisory Committee, assisting with the Village’s new tree law and the Scarsdale food scraps composting program. A lifelong conservationist, he embraced the native plant movement and, with his wife, transformed their suburban lawn into a bird and pollinator sanctuary.
In his most significant role, John was co-Leader of the International Myeloma Foundation’s (IMF) Westchester County support group starting in 2015. The group meets once a month and he ran meetings until shortly before his demise. The friendships, companionship, and service to that group motivated him to pursue multiple avenues of treatment and to share the information he gleaned, thereby prolonging his own and many other people’s lives.
