Fred Malwitz, a consummate family man, Yankee-hater and father of Brooklyn Paper bookkeeper Lisa Malwitz, has died.
The cause of death has not been confirmed, but Malwitz, 79, was apparently the victim of a stroke on June 5, his daughter Lisa said.
A man of simple Brooklyn passions — baseball, fishing, gambling and hating the New York Yankees — Malwitz was nothing short of “the anchor in our family,” said Charles Malwitz, the middle of Malwitz’s three children, who remembered his father as a hardworking, easygoing, and optimistic 6-foot man.
Frederick William Malwitz II was born May 29, 1929, in his parents’ house at on Church Avenue in Flatbush. He attended Erasmus Hall, the noted Flatbush high school where Barbra Streisand graduated. Malwitz also worked at Ebinger’s, the bakery.
After high school, Malwitz went to work as a messenger at Chase Manhattan Bank. This led to a 43-year career most recently as vice president of international operations. He retired in 1989 to care for his wife of 44 years. Mathilde — also known as Lee — died of cancer in 1994.
The couple had met on a blind date.
Friends said that Malwitz loved his family most of all, but the Mets were a close second.
“His last words were not, ‘I love you,’ but, ‘I hate the Yankees,’” his daugher said.
He is survived by his three children, Frederick William Malwitz III, Charles Florian Malwitz, and Lisa Jayne Malwitz; an older brother, Norman Malwitz; grandchildren Christopher, Samantha, Jason and Joni; and great-grandson Austin.
