Seymour Hart loved life and loved being in motion, his family said.
“He didn’t sit still,” said his grandson Dr. Peter Scher, of Aspen, Colo. “He was always doing something.”
Mr. Hart, an athlete himself, attended his grandkids sporting events, exercised regularly and he played golf in to his 90s, the family said. He was a regular volunteer at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and received a pin recognizing 25 years of service in 2010. It was one of his proudest moments, said his daughter, Fran Scher.
“The other was completing the Peachtree Road Race,” she said.
Mr. Hart, at his daughter’s suggestion, entered the race for the first time when he was 80. It seemed like a natural thing to do since he walked a few miles every morning, Mrs. Scher said.
His walking team always included his daughter and granddaughter, Julie Scher, who said her grandfather often turned things like this into fun family events. The last time he was able to participate, he was a few weeks shy of 88 years old. He would have walked it the following year, but his cardiologist advised against it, his family said.
Seymour Maurice Hart, of Sandy Springs, died Sunday at the Summer’s Landing Mt. Vernon residence that he shared with his wife of 73 years, Eleanor Hart. He was 95. A graveside service has been planned for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Arlington Memorial Park. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Hart’s devotion to his wife Eleanor always delighted his family. The two met when he was 13 and she was 11, said his son Jeffrey Hart.
“He offered her a ride on the handlebars of his bicycle and they’ve been together ever since,” Mr. Hart said of his parents.
Seymour Hart and his wife both grew up in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Mr. Hart, who attended Peter Stuyvesant High School and New York University, came to Atlanta in the 1980s after he retired from the textiles industry to be closer to his kids and grandkids.
One of the things that made Mr. Hart unique was his ability to communicate with people, his family said.
“He had so many experiences during his life that he could talk to anybody about anything,” said his daughter, Mrs. Scher.
Mr. Hart worked at the Roosevelt Hotel in the gym giving massages, he managed a movie theater, he worked as a salesman and manufacturer of ladies coats and suits and he was a vice president of a textiles company, his daughter said.
Dr. Scher said it appeared as if his grandfather knew everyone he ever met.
“He’d shake your hand, look you in your eye, ask you how you were doing and wait for an answer,” his grandson said. “For a long time I thought he actually knew all of these people, but that was just the way he greeted everyone. And once you met him, you never forgot him.”
Mr. Hart is also survived by a brother, Jerry Hart of New York and three additional grandchildren.
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