Remembering Florence Kadish Deutsch (1929 - 2020)

The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation mourns the loss of Florence Kadish Deutsch who passed away peacefully in her home on December 26, 2020. 

Born Fejga Kadysz in Siedlce, Gdańsk, Poland in 1929, her family emigrated to the United States, when she was just nine. The rest of her family who stayed were murdered in the Holocaust and her parents had to scramble to eventually reestablish themselves in New York City, living first in the South Bronx and gradually rebuilding a thriving retail business on the lower east side of Manhattan.

Young Florence was forced to adjust to a new community, country and language during a formative period in her life. Like many immigrant youth, the challenges of her migration defined her resilience. Interestingly, the term “resilience” was originally used in physics and engineering--a field in which her future husband, Dr. Robert W. Deutsch achieved remarkable success, eventually seeding the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation--to characterize the ability of materials to resume their original shape or condition after being subjected to a shock; it also describes an individual’s ability to transform adverse circumstances. While the challenge of immigrating to the United States impacted Florence significantly, instilling in her anxiety about the future and a focus on financial security, it also defined her future career path-- igniting her deep commitment to working to achieve career readiness in Baltimore City youth whose access to opportunity was limited. 

In the summer of 1945 she met her husband, Bob Deutsch, while working at Camp Tamiment in the Catskill mountains. Dr. Deutsch, and Florence were married for 70 years.

A longtime resident of Baltimore, Florence worked for over 20 years in the Job Corps program in the workforce development agency for Baltimore City government, starting in the mayoral administration of William Donald Schaefer. 

She provided strong and consistent behind-the-scenes support for her husband’s successful founding of General Physics Corporation, RWD Technologies, and the establishment of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. 

Florence will be remembered fondly by all who knew and loved her as a proud parent, loving grandmother and a warm, dependable, unpretentious co-worker and friend who was always available to sit, listen, and love.