Gary Joel Salzinger's Obituary
Gary Salzinger, 54, passed away on May 1, 2021. Beloved brother of Lisa (Patrick) Martel of Solon and the late Michael (Laura Fox) Salzinger of Twinsburg; loving uncle of Laura, Rebecca, Jennifer, David, and Melissa Martel and Alex Salzinger.
Gary was born on April 11, 1967, to the late Alvin and the late Nancy (nee Smith) Salzinger in Cleveland, Ohio. Gary graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1985 and received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Cleveland State University.
Gary was an IT Configuration Analyst at CVS Health. He also worked as a statistician for the Cleveland Browns, the former Cleveland Crunch professional soccer team, and several local high school sports teams. Gary created a powerful Microsoft Excel program that performed many calculations and provided valuable data to track the game statistics. He was extremely proud of this incredible program and loved to answer questions about it.
Gary loved to volunteer. He was a Big Brother in the Jewish Big Brother Big Sister program for over 20 years. He had 5 Little Brothers in the program. Gary received the Best Jewish Big Brother Award 2 years. He was also very active in volunteering activities at The Temple-Tifereth Israel and enjoyed ushering at Jewish services.
Gary loved music and was especially interested in Jewish music. He played the violin in his high school and college orchestras, and he enjoyed singing. He was looking forward to joining the Temple-Tifereth Israel choir when the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
Gary adored his family and loved spending time with them. Gary loved sports and enjoyed sharing this passion with nephews David and Alex, who also loved sports. He enjoyed watching family-friendly old sitcoms and movies with his nieces and nephews. Gary loved to play board games and was a huge fan of backgammon. One of his favorite games to play was Connect 4. He loved to teach children how to play it, and he would teach them little tricks to help them improve.
Gary always liked to exercise regularly. He especially enjoyed bicycling with friends.
The service will be available on Thursday, May 6, 2021, at 11:00 AM via live-stream at the following link: bit.ly/TTTI-Chapel
There will be no visitation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contributions can be made in Gary’s memory to The Temple-Tifereth Israel.
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