Daniel Justman, 89
Daniel Justman, a well-known psychoanalyst who grew up in an orphanage in Denver and finished his medical training at the prestigious New York Psychoanalytic Institute, died of Alzheimer’s disease at home in Manhattan on Nov. 15, five days after his 89th birthday. With his wife of 47 years, Zuzana Justman, who survives, he was a longtime East Hampton second-home owner.
One of his older brothers was diagnosed with schizophrenia after suffering a nervous breakdown during Army service in World War II, and his father, who had crippling heart disease and a wife with tuberculosis, committed suicide. Dr. Justman, who was only 14 at the time, devoted his career to helping the mentally ill.
His parents, Morris Justman and Lillian Gersten, came to this country from Warsaw in the early 1920s with their two older boys, then 8 and 6. Their third son was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 10, 1926, and was not yet 2 when his mother fell ill and was hospitalized.
“They didn’t have enough family nearby or money to help with child care,” wrote Dr. Justman’s daughter, Jessica Justman, “so Dan was placed in the Infants Home in Borough Park and Jake and Dave were placed in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. Morris visited them each week and made sure the older boys always had some spending money.”
Their mother was eventually sent to a sanatorium in Colorado, where she did not improve. “Her doctors thought it was because she missed her family so much, and so, in the summer of 1929, when Dan was almost 3, the rest of the family moved to Denver.” Their father could not care for his three boys, and they wound up in the National Home for Jewish Children, now part of the city’s National Jewish Hospital.
At the age of 17, in the summer of 1944, Dr. Justman graduated from high school and enlisted in the Navy, telling recruiters he was 18. He served as a radio technician aboard a ship in the Pacific, and attended the University of Colorado under the G.I. Bill at the war’s end.
After graduating from the university and its School of Medicine, he came east, where he met his first wife, the former Helga Reiss. They were married in 1955. His daughter, who lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., and son, Alex Justman of Foster City, Calif., are the children of that marriage.
After his divorce, Dr. Justman married Zuzana Pick, a Czech-born, Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, on Nov. 30, 1968, around the same time the couple discovered the South Fork. They rented first on Hedges Lane in Amagansett and later in Beach Hampton before buying their East Hampton house. In 1969, they were founding members of the East Hampton Tennis Club, where Dr. Justman, an outstanding player, won the “A” singles tournament in 1972 and again in 1976.
“For years, Dan was the best singles tennis player at the club, yet he was always willing to play with everyone, and always let whomever he was playing with feel they were playing well and actually winning points and games,” said a friend and fellow member, Stephen Adler.
“He spent hours and hours hitting with my brother and me,” said his stepson David Boroff. “No matter what was going on in his life, he devoted so much time to us. I remember one summer he badly injured his leg on the tennis court. But that didn’t stop him from hitting with Philip and me — while he was on crutches. We must have hit for an hour that day.”
His daughter recalled “his discipline and patience in practicing his tennis serve. He would line up what seemed like a hundred cans of tennis balls along the service line and then take a large bag of balls and practice serve after serve until he had knocked them all down.”
Bicycling was another passion. “We biked together in Central Park and in East Hampton,” Mrs. Justman wrote in a statement read at her husband’s funeral. “This is a little corny, but we had a song: ‘Isn’t It Romantic, Biking by the Atlantic.’ ”
And Pam and Kent McDonald, the owners of Bermuda Bikes Plus in East Hampton, said in an email that “sometimes in business, there are certain customers that you look forward to seeing, because they make you smile. Dr. Justman was that person. He loved bikes and anything with two wheels. Sometimes he’d just stop in for a chat, and it was always a thought-provoking conversation. He was a true gentleman.”
“I am grateful that Dan lived to be 89,” Mrs. Justman wrote. “Even though because of his Alzheimer’s the last years were difficult, we still had many wonderful moments. Dan was a proud man, and Alzheimer’s is a humbling experience, but he never lost his sense of humor. Only about 10 days ago, a visiting nurse asked him what his name was, and since by then he had absolutely no idea, he came up with ‘Big Shot.’ ”
In addition to his wife and children, Dr. Justman leaves two stepsons, Philip and David Boroff, both of Manhattan, and three grandchildren. His brother David, now 95, lives in Denver.
Funeral services took place on Nov. 18 at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan. Memorial contributions may be directed to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 North Michigan Avenue, #1700, Chicago, Ill., 60601. I.S.