Barbara (Weinflash) Denerstein died in her sleep in Torrington, Connecticut, on July 2, after a series of illnesses. She was 76.
Denerstein and her partner, Michael Williams, had recently moved to Torrington after almost 20 years in Pine Plains. Before moving to Pine Plains, Denerstein spent 25 years in Cornwall, New York, where she and her former husband, Dan Denerstein, raised their two sons.
The daughter of a NASA engineer and an educator, Denerstein was born in Newport News, Virginia, where she lived for 13 years until moving to Syosset, New York. She graduated from Syosset High School in 1964, and attended Cornell University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree.
After college, she traveled abroad, spending time as an au pair in Paris while also traveling to other parts of Europe, Israel and Japan. Upon her return, she earned a Master of Education degree from New York University, settling in Cornwall in 1978.
Denerstein worked as a teacher across all age groups in her education career, including time at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan and the Canterbury Presbyterian Church in Cornwall. She also was an administrator in the child care department at West Point, from which she retired in 2007.
Denerstein also pursued interests such as ballroom dancing and Sunday afternoon motorcycle riding with Williams.
She is survived by her two sons, Matthew Denerstein and Evan Denerstein; a grandson, Benjamin; a daughter-in-law, Michele; Evan’s partner, Courtney; her former husband Dan; and Williams, her partner of 25 years. She is also survived by Williams’s children, Kristy and Mike, and his grandchildren, Chloe, Callie, Christopher, Cristian and Brooke.
The family requested that donations in her memory be made to the National Head Start program or the Children’s Aid Society.