Tilles, Solomon H.

Solomon H. Tilles, of Middletown, and formerly of Old Lyme, and Storrs, passed away on March 25, 2020, at home.He was born into a Yiddish world in the Bronx, and attended public elementary and junior high school and a year at Stuyvesant High School. In 1946, his family traded the city for a farm in New Jersey, and he graduated from Toms River High School in 1949 and Rutgers in 1953. After military service, he married Elinor Cohen in 1956, and then resumed his education. He earned a master's degree at Columbia in 1958 and then a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. His first teaching position was at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, and then he taught at the University of Connecticut from 1963 until his retirement in 1997. While he was at UConn, he established foreign study programs in Mexico and Spain, and organized programs that linked the UConn Spanish department with high schools throughout the state. For many years, he was an active member of the Jewish community in Storrs at the UConn Hillel, and then was an active member of Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek in Chester. He is predeceased by his wife; his daughter, Cynthia; and his grandson, Samuel. He leaves his sister, Estelle Ginsberg, of Brunswick, Ohio; sons Peter and his wife Lori of East Meadow, New York, and David, of Middletown, Connecticut; two grandsons; two great granddaughters; cousins, nieces, nephews, and their families. A graveside service will be held on Tuesday, March 30th at noon, at Duck River Cemetery, McCurdy Rd., Old Lyme, CT. Donations may be made to Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek Rabbi Discretionary Fund, 55 East Kings Highway, Chester, Connecticut 06412. To sign the online guest book visit www.fultontherouxoldlyme.com.

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