Mid-day traffic was jammed up on Whalley Avenue in Westville Tuesday. It wasn’t because of a car accident or road work. It was because a beloved native son and architect was being eulogized and buried.
That native son was Arthur Ratner, a vivacious architect who died suddenly of a heart attack Saturday at the age of 60.
The overflow crowd that turned out for Ratner’s funeral at Congregation Beth El Keser Israel was even bigger than the turnout for Yom Kippur services. An estimated 500 to 600 people, many of them longtime members of the city’s Jewish community, heard friends and family recall a life filled with good works, good humor, and good times.
Ratner was one of the area’s original “green” architects; his firm emphasized sustainable design in its projects. Over 30 years, Ratner’s firm designed some of the city’s more visible residential and commercial projects, including 25 Science Park, Edward Court at Olive and Chapel streets (pictured), the last home of the Yale Co-Op, the Roland T. Warner Hardware building on Grand Avenue, and Phoenix Landing on Quinnipiac Avenue. He also pitched in to help not-for-profit community institutions from Marrakech to Conregation Bikur Cholim design new homes.
At Tuesday’s funeral service, eulogizers focused more on the personal “Artie,” the passionate recreational athlete and friend and husband and father. He loved New Haven, and he ended up helping to shape it.
As a kid, Ratner attended Davis Street School and Hillhouse High.
Ratner recently served as Class of 1967 organizer for Hillhouse’s 150th birthday bash; click here to read about that. “We were one-third Jewish, one-third other white kids,” Ratner recalled at that event, “and one-third African Americans. And, you know something, we didn’t see color or difference. We all got along.” He’s pictured at left in the photo with classmates Glenda Martin and Jimmy Disken at the reunion.
Ratner is survived by his wife of 40 years, Betsy Ratner, who at Tuesday’s funeral read moving anniversary poems Artie wrote her; mother Miriam “Mikki” Ratner, son Howard Ratner, daughter-in-law Shilo Ratner, brother Gary Ratner, and sister Leah Ratner.