Blue Star Camps changed thousands of lives. It was the first Jewish summer camp in the Southeast, a place where kids forged their Jewish identities and made lifelong friends.
Harry Popkin of Atlanta, one of the camp co-founders, made the experience memorable for Ira Gingold, a former camper and counselor. He recalls Mr. Popkin in high-top hiking boots, welcoming him and others from Greenville, S.C., when they arrived at the camp in the mountains of western North Carolina.
“We always came by bus at 1 a.m.,” said Mr. Gingold, now a 63-year-old Atlanta lawyer. “He always met us and called us by name and gave us cookies and milk. We all called him Uncle Harry and we were all family.”
Mr. Popkin, 90, died of apparent heart failure Tuesday morning at Piedmont Hospital, said his son, Michael Popkin of Atlanta. A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Friday at The Temple on Peachtree Street in Atlanta.
Mr. Popkin was born in Stillmore, a little town in Middle Georgia, and grew up in other small towns before his family settled in Augusta after his father’s death. He attended Georgia Tech and served in the military during World War II teaching swimming in California and Florida.
During the war he and his brothers, the late Herman Popkin and Ben Popkin, discussed the need for a summer camp for Jewish children in the Southeast. Many Southern camps wouldn’t accept Jewish kids and most of their families couldn’t afford to send them north for the summer, Michael Popkin said.
The brothers rented a camp in North Georgia for two summers starting in 1948 before buying land outside Hendersonville, N.C., to create Blue Star Camps. For Jewish children who grew up in small Southern towns heavily outnumbered by Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, the camp was an eye-opener. Suddenly, they weren’t the minority.
The co-ed camp provided the usual activities such as swimming, canoeing and hiking. The “living Judaism” program “tried to help kids learn more about their religion,” Michael Popkin said. The campers made lifelong friends and some even met their future spouses.
Over the years, thousands of kids spent summers at Blue Star Camps, including Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman who grew up in Dillon, S.C. A survey showed former campers ranking Blue Star second only to their parents and grandparents in forming their “Jewish identity.”
Mr. Popkin knew how to make the kids comfortable.
“He had a charismatic personality,” his son said. “He enjoyed children and young people. They loved him, so it was a natural fit.”
“He always picked up paper wherever he went and expected you to do likewise,” Mr. Gingold said. Michael Popkin said his dad had a name for that activity: the Bottoms Up Club.
Mr. Popkin suffered a heart attack in the early 1970s and sold his share of the camp to his brother, Herman. Herman’s son, Rodger Popkin, now owns Blue Star.
Harry Popkin went back to doing youth work for B’nai B’rith, played golf and served as president of The Temple in the 1970s, said his son. Mr. Popkin later helped out at his son’s business, Active Parenting Publishers.
“He worked with me for 25 years doing everything from opening the mail to paying the bills,” Michael Popkin said, noting his dad was active until two months ago.
Other survivors include his wife, Naomi; sister Hilda Ney of Sandy Springs and Annette Bolgla of Marietta; daughter Lisa Loomis of Atlanta; stepsons Steve Goldner of Atlanta, Michael Goldner of Montgomery, Ala. and Ivan Goldner of St. Simons Island; 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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