50 for 50: Larry & Susan Matloff

"My father, Larry Matloff, was one of the original signatories who helped incorporate the Community House in 1975. He was drawn to the mission of economic and racial justice through providing opportunities for all neighborhood residents in a multi-age, diverse community center. He was a close associate of Reverend Timothy Mitchell from his years working as Executive Director of the Flushing YM-YWHA where they engaged in advocacy and community development projects together. This and his leadership role at Selfhelp Community Services were reasons he was identified by the American Jewish Committee to advocate for the community center as part of the Forest Hills public housing compromise. The establishment of the center was part of a compromise to address opposition to siting public housing in a middle class community.

What I remember most about that time is that finding a peaceful way forward to the negative reaction wasn’t done by any one person—it was truly a collective effort on the part of many people to mine something positive from the controversy. The story that got all the attention was Mario Cuomo's, because he wrote a book about it, but that account downplays all the hard work, the organizing, the bridge-building done by regular people in the community. My dad, like the others involved, lived in Queens, worked in Queens, was invested in Queens. He believed deeply in racial and economic justice, abhorred violence and hatred, and saw a way to use his social work skills and connections for good. He found his way into social work while serving in World War II; he remained in the army through 1946 to work in displaced persons camps with Holocaust and other war survivors and returned to NYC with a goal of working in social services. Social work school was where he met the love of his life, my mom Hildegarde who shared his admiration for the work of the Community House.

He was a creative, out-of-the-box thinker who thrived on ideas that broke the mold—anything that tackled a problem in a new, meaningful way. Although he never ran a settlement house, he fully embraced its model. Community ownership, respect for people, and social justice—those were his core values. He was passionate about social group work, about bringing people together across differences to share space, build trust, and enjoy each other’s company. Group work was central to the founding model of the Community House, and I know my dad would have seen it as essential to community healing after such a divisive conflict. Bringing people together across differences of age, race, economic and social conditions and lived experiences was something he strongly valued; at the Y, he worked with Selfhelp to relocate the all-generation Y in a newly built senior housing so people of all ages could mix in classes around common interests. The goal of the Community House was never just to offer social services—it was to create a space where people could gather, build community, and find common ground. 

I know that he had a particular love and respect for the Community House that endured until he passed away in 1988; four years later, the organization’s commitments were the reason I was drawn to work there. He would have been proud that his grandson and namesake, Larry Nieves, who loved his experiences as a participant at QCH, now works in a settlement house as the third generation of community builders."

—Susan Matloff-Nieves