Herbert Spiegel

Herb Spiegel

1933 -2025

Like professor Harold Hill in The Music Man, Herb Spiegel always heard a band.

He used to say that “life is a banquet; it’s a shame so many people are starving.”  This man found beauty, joy, and humor in everything he did, and made sure that all he came into contact with felt that passion.

Herb died from a heart attack in the early morning of June 5th, 2025, at the well-earned age of 92.  He leaves his wife of nearly 26 years, Joan (Rosen), 5 children from his late first wife Regina (Rubin): Jon, Bob, Suzanne, Adrienne, and Matthew, 2 beloved bonus children: Alysa Rose and Eric Rose, and a combined 13 grandchildren.

Those grandkids will be the pallbearers at his funeral, slated for Monday June 9th at 11 AM, at the Adath Israel section of Fountain Lawn Memorial Park, 545 Eggerts Crossing Road.  He will be buried next to Regina in the family plot.

Herb always said “you should always marry your best friend.  I did it twice.”  He had two great marriages, filled with fun, curiosity, aesthetic expression, vibrant family gatherings, long term relationships that blossomed for decades, and boundless amounts of love.

Shiva will be at Herb and Joan’s home of 26 years, at 41 Clinton Street in Lambertville, on Monday June
9th and Tuesday June 10th from 4pm to 7pm. The Shiva will be festive and inclusive offering a time for spiritual and emotional healing.  Mourners can come together to receive support and share stories from Herb’s incredible life.

Herb was the youngest of two sons, along with his older brother Irwin, to Herman and Ida Spiegel of Trenton.  Herman founded and ran furniture stores in Trenton: Spiegel’s Modern Manor on Warren St, then State St, and eventually Herman Spiegel Fine Furniture on Route 1 in Lawrenceville.  Herb became the manager, chief buyer and co-owner along with Irwin for the stores, showcasing an incredible eye for furnishings that served him and the business extremely well.

He always said that “beautiful design is great, but it should also be functional.”  This fit his appreciation for everything, as his homes reflected his good taste.  Often when people visited they said that being in the house felt like being in a museum.  Herb started a business with a grandson, ‘Good Eye Grampa,’ and took to Instagram, forever evolving and growing.

From Herman, Herb learned far more than furniture and business. Once, when a great flood ravaged homes all over Trenton, Herman took out an ad in the paper saying that the store would replace any customer’s furniture that had been damaged, at cost.  Herman and young Herb once picked up a challah for the Sabbath, and Herman left it sitting in the front seat of their unlocked car as they parked in front of the furniture store. Herb said “aren’t you worried that someone will take it?” Herman said “if someone needs a challah that badly, they can have it.”

Herb attended Trenton High School, where he encountered a favorite teacher: Elizabeth Dillon. “She taught me that there was more to life than just sports. She introduced me to the worlds of fine art, theatre and music. This has remained with me for my entire life.”  He graduated in 1951, and both he and his then girlfriend Regina attended Rutgers University.  There Herb was News Editor of the Daily Targum, covered Rutgers sports for the New York Times, and graduated with a double degree in Journalism and Marketing. He joined the Air Force, and was commissioned as a USAF Second Lieutenant.  He served as a Strategic Air Command navigator, utilizing an impeccable sense of direction that automobile passengers could attest to throughout his life. He supported U2 bomber missions, including the one that Frances Gary Powers flew over Russia.  On one of those missions, Herb asked the pilot to tune the radio to the 1956 World Series, and the entire crew listened to Don Larsen’s legendary perfect game.

After 26 years running the furniture store, he and Irwin closed it in 1984.  Herb became the Director of the Mercer County Community College Small Business Development Center, providing counseling and training for both start-up and existing small businesses.  He installed an International Trade DataBase at the center and traveled multiple times to Russia, where while on a leave of absence from MCCC he established the first Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in that country’s history.  He spent 4 months in St. Petersburg.  A fellow instructor, a native, wrote that “Russia will never be the same since Herb Spiegel’s arrival.  Herb was like the pied piper; people were following him around.  He brought laughter. He taught them the art of the joke.”

Once in Princeton, Herb was invited to a party at The Institute for Advanced Study, the famous incubator of some of the finest scientific minds in human history.  Herb was intellectually intimidated.  But at one point the director of the Institute, Harry Woolf, leaned over and said “did you ever hear the one about…” and Herb knew he was in good shape.  He told Harry a joke that made him roar, and the next day Herb Spiegel’s joke was traveling through the halls among physicists from room to room.

After 15 years with the SBDC, he became a very popular teacher at MCCC, teaching Marketing, Consumer Behavior, and Introduction to Business.  Herb served his community as a 3 term president and head of the admissions committee at the Greenwood House Home for the Jewish Aged.

After Regina’s death, 4 different friends eventually each said to him “I have a perfect woman for you.”  Herb told them he needed someone who was “spontaneous, has passion for life, and is willing to learn.”  And they said “she’s got all three.”  Herb and Joan built a new life together in Lambertville, where he became part of the fabric of the community.  He volunteered as a docent at Grounds For Sculpture.  He was a member of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Advisory Commission.  This willingness and ability to begin anew has been inspirational.  Their front porch on Clinton St, like the porch he grew up on in Trenton, became a place where people looked forward to spending a few minutes with him.   He flourished here, and never stopped growing.

Herb lived and saw countless wonders of the world, and loved to share them. He saw Willie Mays play minor league ball for the Trenton Giants.  He was at the 1980 Olympics, and saw the Miracle On Ice.  He attended a World Series game at both Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. He once had a scary evening with a bout of transient global amnesia, and when he came to the first thing he remembered was the starting lineup of the 1943 Red Sox.  He listened to Muhammad Ali defeat Sonny Liston on a transistor radio while at the Metropolitan Opera House.

He loved to sit in the backyard, and he consistently watered plants in both front and back.  No matter what life brought, Herb knew there was an opportunity to grow. His bonus children and grandchildren enriched his final 3 decades immeasurably, and the two families he brought together have become beautifully enmeshed in one another’s lives.

Herb Spiegel was an inspiring model of humanity, all the way to the end. He lived life to the very last drop.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Greenwood House. 

Funeral services and burial are 11:00 AM on Monday, June 9 at Fountain Lawn Memorial Park, 545 Eggerts Crossing Road, Ewing, NJ. Shiva will be observed at the Spiegel residence in Lambertville on Monday and Tuesday from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM.

Funeral arrangements are by Orland’s Ewing Memorial Chapel. OrlandsMemorialChapel.com/Herbert-Spiegel