Stuart Gellman died April 3, 2020, in Philadelphia.
A Philadelphia native, Mr. Gellman was an author, public relations consultant, and advocate of victims’ rights. He attended Germantown High School, where he was sports editor of the newspaper and stringer for The Evening Bulletin. After graduation, he worked weekends on the Bulletin’s rewrite desk, became front page and sports editor of the Germantown Courier in 1951, and mustered into the Army in 1953. After military service in Japan, Mr. Gellman enrolled at Rider College, rose to editor of the Rider News and won the Ferris Prize for finest journalism student. He graduated in 1957, covered the invention of the transistor for Fairchild Publications, and then joined the International Resistance Company in 1959 as public relations director. From 1962 to 1974, he founded and ran Stuart Gellman Associates, a financial public relations agency. He also was a staff leader at Camp Rockhill for several summers.
In 1978, Mr. Gellman moved to Tucson. He was an advocate with the Pima County Victim Witness Program from 1981 to 1993, where he co-founded the Critical Incident Debriefing Team and was active in passage of the Arizona Victim Rights Act. His work with crime victims was featured in Life magazine and Reader’s Digest. He served on the local board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and as mental health chair of Tucson’s Red Cross chapter, receiving its community relations award in 2000. In the 1990s and 2000s, he was a Pima County steering committee member of the National Disaster Medical System and a member of the Southern Arizona DUI Task Force. He was mental health liaison for the Tucson Airport Authority Crisis Response Team and volunteer chaplain at University Medical Center.
Mr. Gellman was a frequent writer, speaker, and trainer on issues of victimology, loss, grief, and life choices. His articles appeared in the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Citizen, and Arizona Jewish Post. Twice he was nominated for a Jefferson Award for Public Service.
In 1990, Mr. Gellman published a book, “COPS: The Men and Women Behind the Badge,” which followed a cohort of Tucson police cadets through training and their first year as officers of the law.
Mr. Gellman returned to Philadelphia in 2009 to rekindle a relationship with an old flame, Mimi Kirk, who became his companion for the rest of his days. He volunteered with the Germantown-based Northwest Victim Services.
Survivors include his three children from his first marriage to Marcia Jacobs: Barton (Dafna Linzer) Gellman of New York City, Alan (Arlene Zuckerberg) Gellman of Oakland, California, and Sheri (Brad) Throlson of Columbus, Georgia; sister Barbara Kates; companion, Mimi Kirk; and eight grandchildren.
