Michael Brodsky passed away on March 15, 2022 at his home in Princeton. He was 74.

Michael was born in the Village of Zelenchukskaya in the Stavropol area of the former Soviet Union. He lived there until he was 15, and then moved to Minsk, where he lived with his cousin’s family, and studied at the Minsk Technikum to be a draftsman. After graduating from Technikum in 1967, he worked as a draftsman for several years. During this time, he met and married Klara, in November 1970. He went back to school to the Byelorussian Polytechnical Institute where he studied during the nights and continued working as a draftsman for 5 years and obtained his Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, graduating in 1977. Michael and Klara’s son Igor was born during this time in 1975.

Michael, Klara, and Igor emigrated to the United States during the cold war in 1979, joined by Klara’s mother Hannah, and Klara’s brother Boris and his wife Ruth. They first settled in Indianapolis, IN, where they lived until 1985, when they moved briefly to Natick, MA, and then finally to NJ. In New Jersey, they lived in Plainsboro, Lawrenceville, and finally Princeton where Michael lived for the past 14 years.

In Indianapolis, he worked initially as a draftsman for a private company, and then obtained a job as a civil engineer at the infrastructure design firm, Howard Needles, Tammen, and Bergendorf (HNTB). He worked there until moving to New Jersey, when he moved to the construction engineering company, Greenman Pederson, Inc., where he worked for nearly 35 years initially as a draftsman and civil engineer, and then as a field inspector on highway and bridge construction sites. He enjoyed being a field inspector because it gave him the opportunity to be outside and was a perfect fit for his meticulous nature

Michael enjoyed volleyball, table-tennis, soccer, listening to classical music (Jascha Heifetz and Yitzhak Perelman violin, Bach and Telemann concertos) watching Clint Eastwood (if “A Fistfull of Dollars” was on, then everything else would stop) and James Bond films (Goldfinger was a perennial favorite) and telling jokes.

He supported organizations that supported American Veterans, funds for victims of 9-11, and to institutions of higher learning in the United States and Israel, including The Lawrenceville School, The University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, The Weitzman Institute, and the Technion.

Michael was a kind, gracious, and generous spirit who treated everyone he met with dignity and respect. He knew the value of diligence and hard work; he embodied those qualities in his daily life, and imparted them to his son. Michael loved being with people, and loved his family. He particularly loved to tell jokes and Russian stories and enjoyed making people laugh. Michael especially loved spending time with his granddaughter, Maya and taking her to the swimming pool when she spent a week or two in the summers with her grandparents. He was a loving and caring  husband who deeply loved Klara, and was a supportive and understanding father who was always proud of his son. He was the kind of person that if anyone needed his help with anything, he could always be relied upon to drop everything and help.

Michael is survived by his wife, Klara Brodsky, a son, Igor Brodsky, a daughter-law, Sunny Shin, a granddaughter Maya, and his brother-in-law Boris Fridman and his family.

Funeral services are private. Memorial contributions may be made to RazomForUkraine: https://razomforukraine.org/donate/