Remembering family and friends

A roundup of notices and services. Look for additional obituaries on this newspaper’s website.

Saratoga Springs- Mayor of Saratoga Springs, 1974 to 1980. Raymond Watkin, 91, three-term Mayor of Saratoga Springs in the transformative years of the 1970s, died Sunday, August 23 at his home in the city. Born in Schenectady, N.Y. June 9, 1929, Mr. Watkin worked as a teenager in a local meatpacking plant, then in various jobs at General Electric Co. He was an active participant in the labor movement at the time, a turbulent and formative period marked by strikes and conicts between GE and its workforce. In 1963, Mr. Watkin married Joan Tubell, of Manhattan, after a three-year courtship that began during a summer visit with friends to a camp near Warrensburg. Through his pursuit of opportunities in the shoe business, Mr. Watkin established Raymond’s Bootery, a specialty shop for ladies’ shoes, on Broadway near the corner of Lake Avenue, a location where he had previously sold shoes for Cohen Brothers. Raymond’s Bootery became a popular destination for women throughout upstate New York. Mr. Watkin’s candidacy for Mayor began on Primary Day 1973, in the era of non- partisan elections, with a 350-vote writein backed by then-Public Works commissioner Thomas McTygue. The subsequent campaign swept incumbents from ofce and brought a progressive, independent-minded Council into power. In early 1974, just after Mr. Watkin’s election, the U.S. Postal Service announced plans to install a drop ceiling to obscure the leaded glass skylight in the Broadway post ofce, and also cover over the priceless WPA-era murals in the lobby. Mayor Watkin took immediate action to stop the U.S. Postal Service from both installing a drop ceiling in the Broadway ofce, which would have obscured a historic skylight and covering the WPA- era murals in the lobby. He took the Post Ofce personally to Federal Court in Utica, and soon the Post Ofce backed down. He led the city to enactment of the Historic Preservation Ordinance, establishment of the Board of Architectural Review, the Broadway Façade Easement Program, the downtown Special Assessment District, and the establishment of historic districts in the zoning code, all enacted between 1977 and 1979. Mr. Watkin reformed the Urban Renewal Agency, redirecting Federal funds from demolition toward the more important Village Brook drainage project, thus saving from decay and collapse the Caneld Casino and the entire neighborhood between Henry and Putnam Streets. This reform made possible the development of the current Public Library and many commercial properties in “the gut.” His mayoralty was marked by annual enthusiastic promotion (and city funding) of the New York City Ballet and SPAC. His personal friendship with George Balanchine, highlighted by a parade in Mr. B’s honor, helped build audience and community support for the ballet. During the gasoline crisis of 1974, Mr. Watkin gained national prominence for negotiating with gasoline stations to implement an “odd-even” program to cut waiting lines at lling stations, an approach that soon spread across the country. Mr. Watkin leveraged his prominent political standing in 1974 and support for racing’s role in the community to secure Hugh Carey’s support for city’s exclusive August thoroughbred meet. Mr. Watkin’s commitment the needs of ordinary people led to the establishment of the Senior Citizens Center on Williams Street, initiation of the federal Section 8 rental subsidy program, and, in 1979, the construction of the Raymond Watkin Apartments. He also mobilized ofcial city and community opposition against an area demonstration by the Ku Klux Klan, against the anti-Semitic pamphleteer Richard Cotton, who had planned to campaign in the city. Fred Dicker, long time columnist for the New York Post, who covered Mr.Watkin for The Saratogian and Albany Times-Union from 1971 to 1975, and who became a close friend of Mr. Watkin, said, “Ray Watkin was clearly a transformative gure for the City of Saratoga Springs, which he loved, and was an inspiration for many Saratogians who came to love him because of his dedication to the city, his hard work, his courage, his incorruptibility, and his idealism; After his Mayoral term ended, he served on the staff of State Senator Howard Nolan, D-Albany, as a special advisor on thoroughbred racing. In later years, he remained active in local politics, in 2006 leading the successful campaign against a proposed change in the City Charter. Mr. Watkin remained attentive to and active in local politics and civic affairs, strongly supporting the renewed and revived cause of Charter Reform in the 2017 referendum. Mr. Watkin was predeceased in 2013 by his wife, Joan, daughter of Nathan and Bertha Tubell. The Watkins celebrated their 50 th wedding anniversary in June 2012. Survivors include cousins Randall Terk of El Dorado, California, Linda Lander of Norwalk, Connecticut, and Steven Terk of Estero, Florida. Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday August 26 at Beth Israel Cemetery, Rotterdam. Arrangements are by Levine Memorial Chapel, Albany.