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02/01/2024 01:53 PMLaraine Phyllis Sammler of North Branford died on Jan. 24, 2024, with one hand held by her husband and the other by her daughter. Born to her mom, Betty Gorlenko, on Nov. 8, 1944, in the District of Columbia, and raised with her sister Joanne Thomas, she traversed her own unique and courageous path from her earliest years.
Graduating after only four years from Syracuse University with a Bachelor's and Master of Art, she excelled in philosophy, English, and the theatrical arts. Soon after, she met and fell in love with her husband of 53 years at SUNY Brockport, where they, with two dear friends, helped pioneer the school’s burgeoning Department of Theatre.
Relocating to New Haven in 1971, Laraine held various arts management positions, including those at Choate Rosemary Hall, Theatre Magazine, and the Digital Media Center for the Arts at Yale University. At the Yale School of Drama, she committed a half-century to the Technical Design and Production department that her husband led, welcoming, loving, and nurturing countless students. Her kitchen and her countenance are remembered for their humor, wit, and acceptance.
Laraine’s love of travel was driven by her passion to understand history, explore art, and let her mind be stilled by breezes carried over the ocean. Devoted to language, she extolled the brilliance of Aristotle and Becket’s Theatre of the Absurd. Compelled by whimsy, she read her daughter Winnie the Pooh and laughed with abandon.
Marriage had merged her urban background with her husband’s upbringing on a farm. Together, they built a rural homestead where she fed her family from her husband’s garden and preserved the bounty for a sustenance that was both physical and spiritual.
Her home was a place of respite to over 400 students, many colleagues and dear friends, her cherished family members, her daughter’s compatriots, her mother in her later years, horses, a sheep, some dogs and cats that were chosen, some that chose her, a lost turtle or two, and a variety of birds with broken wings.
All with a voice attest her greatness, call her beloved, and know her spirit will continue to serve our world.
Laraine Sammler is survived by her husband, Bronislaw Sammler; her daughter, Anya Sammler-Michael; Anya’s husband, Scott Sammler-Michael; her niece, Annie Thomas; Annie’s spouse, Lee Sinkevich; her nephews, Joseph Thomas and David Thomas, and David’s spouse Selma Pena …and a multitude of beloveds.
A Memorial Service will be held at 11 a.m. March 2, at the Unitarian Society of New Haven, 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden, CT.