- Date Of Birth: April 19, 1942
- Date Of Death: March 6, 2017
- State: Connecticut
Sandra “Sandy” (Schindlinger) Honig-Haftel, 74, died peacefully March 6, 2017 surrounded by her family. A resident of Venice, FL, she and her husband, Carl Haftel, also maintained a summer home in East Hampton, CT. Born in 1942 in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, NY, Sandy moved with her family (mother, Margaret Rosenfield Schindlinger, and father, Sidney Schindlinger) to Far Rockaway in the Bayswater area. A graduate of Far Rockaway High School, at the age of 16 she pursued her undergraduate degree at the University of Vermont. Graduating at 19, she began her career editing science textbooks at Holt Rinehart and Winston in New York City. She moved from Holt Rinehart to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and then to Scholastic Books, where she was promotion manager of the Teen Book Club. Sandy met and married her first husband, Donald Honig, and in 1972 welcomed her daughter, Cathy (LaBella), into their world. Sandy and the family moved to Middletown, CT, when she accepted a position with Xerox Education Publications. Her first marriage ended amicably, and in 1983, she married Carl Haftel, a builder/developer. They welcomed their son, Michael, into the world in 1983. An advocate of lifelong learning, Sandy’s career bridged the worlds of academia and private enterprise. Her resume in higher education includes teaching positions at Elms College and adjunct assignments at the University of Hartford and the University of New Haven. Her Connecticut employers include Xerox, Fuller Brush and Hartford Steam Boiler. Sandy received her master of business administration degree from the University of Connecticut in 1976 and her doctorate in management systems from the University of New Haven in 1991. She was recognized with a Distinguished Alumni award by UNH in 1999. She and the family moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1991, where she was an assistant professor of entrepreneurship and management until 1996. She authored many academic and business teaching papers, including a documentation of the “First Pizza Hut in Moscow,” which was published as a textbook case study. One overseas assignment took her to Slovakia, on a U.S. Information Agency grant, to teach entrepreneurship to former communists. Until her death, she was actively involved with the two family businesses: Monarch Builders and Developers and Balm Associates. Sandy is survived by Carl Haftel, her husband of 33 years; their son Michael, of San Francisco; daughter and son-in-law Cathy and Michael LaBella of Cobalt; grandchildren Hannah and Coby LaBella of Cobalt; and her brother Jerome Schindlinger and his wife, Judy. She is also survived by Arnold Haftel, Sylvia and Seymour Haftel, Joan Myers, many nieces and nephews and her neighbors at East Hampton’s Laurel Ridge community.
