Saturday, January 26, 1991

Obituary: Gordon Sinykin - Class of 1927

MADISON - Gordon Sinykin, age 80, died on Friday, January 25, 1991 at a local hospital. He was born on June 18, 1910, to Sam and Dora Sinykin in Madison, Wisconsin. He married the former Dorothy Edlestein on May 2, 1941. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1933, he was a founding partner of the LaFollette and Sinykin law firm, where he worked until his death. He was active in the management of the political campaigns of Governor Phillip F. LaFollette, Jr. and Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Jr. and in the formation of the Progressive Party of Wisconsin in 1934. In World War II, he was awarded the Bronze Star medal and as a major in the U.S. Air Force, was a witness on the battleship Missouri to the signing of the Japanese surrender. He was active on numerous business and community service boards of directors, including the Progressive Magazine, the Capital Times, the Wisconsin and Dane County Bar Associations, the Wisconsin Bar Foundation, B'Nai B'rith Hillel Foundation, the American Automobile Association, the former United Bank, and the former Methodist Hospital. He was past president of the American Bar Association Bar Foundation and a member of the American Bar Association's House of Delegates and various sections and committees. In 1984, he received the Herbert Harley Award of the American Judicature Society. Survivors include his wife Dorothy; two sons, Daniel (Sheri) of Madison and Phillip (Patricia) of Cupertino, California; one daughter, Susan (Steve) Anderson of Madison; six grandchildren, Aaron, Rudi, Joshua, Kristi, and Dean Sinykin, and Jason Anderson; two sisters, Ida Stein of Madison and Delia (Sam) Behr of Rockford, Illinois; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by a sister, Louis Hansen. Memorial services will be held at TEMPLE BETH EL, 2702 Arbor Drive at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 27, 1991. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in his memory to the Wisconsin Bar Foundation, 402 Q. Wilson St., Madison, WI 53703.

Originally published in the Wisconsin State Journal on January 26, 1991

Note: Gordon Sinykin's class year is based on information in the 1927 Tychoberahn. He was editor-in-chief of that yearbook. For additional information about Sinykin, including his observations about growing up in Madison's Greenbush neighborhood and his observations about Madison Central High School, consult Volume XX - 2005 of A Journal of the Four Lakes Region, published by Historic Madison, Inc., which contains the transcription of an oral history interview with Sinykin. You may read more about that interview by clicking HERE.