By Shengnan Gao
The Scene staff
Art was therapy for Judy Medoff, and she inspired other students while taking classes at Forest Park.
Medoff, 84, died on Sept. 29 after a long battle with lung cancer. She had formed friendships with classmates and instructors, even while she was ill.
“I believe our class was a special place for her,” said art professor Mario Carlos, who teaches painting and design. “We’re like a big family here. Everyone cares about each other.
“We play music during class. (Medoff) would sing when she was painting. Sometimes she would dance.”
Classmate Marilyn Cathcart met Medoff in an advanced painting class. She described her as someone who did everything “wholeheartedly” and was always interested in learning new things.
“I remember her taking several art classes at a time, all of them studio courses requiring substantial time commitments,” Cathcart said. “She was also kind and funny, and her firmly held opinions did not keep her from listening very carefully and patiently to other people’s concerns.”
The former Judy Zukerman was born in New York City, according to her obituary published by Berger Memorial Chapel in St. Louis.
Medoff attended Barnard College before getting married to her husband, Gerald Medoff, and moving to St. Louis so he could attend medical school.
They later lived in Boston, where Judy Medoff earned her doctorate degree at Brandeis University. She spent two years as an assistant professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, then returned to St. Louis, where she worked as a biology professor for 32 years at St. Louis University before retiring in 2004.
“She was fascinated by biological processes, doing very colorful paintings of neurons in the brain, taken from electron microscope images,” Cathcart said.
Medoff was a member of the Jewish singing group Shir Ami for decades, according to her obituary. She loved reading the New York Times and visiting museums.
Medoff is survived by two sons, Benjamin and Nathaniel, and four grandchildren.
“Above all, Judy was fiercely loyal to her family and friends,” the obituary stated. “She was the real deal, as they say, as genuine and humble as they come, firmly rooted in her Bronx pedigree.
“For her kindness, she was blessed with a group of friends, the ‘girl squad,’ as her family later referred to them.”
Medoff began taking art classes at Forest Park even before her retirement. Earlier this year, she was chosen to represent the community college at Varsity Art XXVI, a St. Louis exhibition that showcases the city’s finest college art students.
Carlos was deeply impressed by Medoff’s passion for art.
“Passion is very important for an artist,” he said. “Without passion, your work will not have any soul.
“(Medoff) was a good artist. She always tried to learn new things, no matter how the situation was. No matter how physically difficult for her, she always tried. She really enjoyed being creative.”