Norman L. Rapkin ’50 died on December 30, 2022, in Scarborough, Maine.

(The following was provided by the Portland Jewish Funeral Home on January 2, 2023)

Norman Leslie Rapkin

After a life well-lived, two weeks following his 94th birthday, beloved only child of Samuel and Frances Rapkin, Norman is survived by his wife and soulmate of 63, years Lenore Levinson (Norrie), his son Steven (Toronto, Ontario), daughters Lesley Levine (Danbury, Connecticut) and Hilary Rapkin (Falmouth, Maine), sons-in-law Robert Levine and William Stiles and his treasured grandsons Jacob, Zachary, and Justin Levine and Elias and Ethan Rapkin-Stiles.

Norman was born in 1928 in Salem, Massachusetts. He prepped at the Clark School (Hanover, New Hampshire) and then attended Bowdoin College in the Class of 1950 (Brunswick, Maine), after which he worked in intelligence in Washington, DC during the Korean War. He next attended Harvard where he received his law degree (1956) and then earned an LLM at NYU School of Law. After completing his education, Norman practiced tax law in New York with the IRS, Office of the Chief Counsel. Following a two-year stint at Seder & Seder (Worcester, Massachusetts), he and Norrie moved to Montreal where he practiced international taxation, first at Touche Ross & Co., and then at the Royal Bank of Canada, where he was vice president of taxation and the first Jewish officer in the history of the bank. During the 1970s, he was an adjunct professor at McGill Law School, where he inspired a generation of budding tax practitioners. Norman and Norrie traveled widely in Europe over the years, often with friends and family, creating wonderful memories and frequently returning to London and Paris, for which they both had such an affinity.

In retirement, Norman was counsel at Heenan Blaikie LLP and began to spend more time on the North Shore of Boston (Swampscott and Marblehead) where he had grown up; and then in Maine, where he and Norrie eventually built a house and planned their retirement. Once fully retired, Norman’s lifelong passion for classical music found expression in his involvement with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Bowdoin International Music Festival, where his skill set and enthusiasm were put to good use. Once established in Maine, Norman also began to dabble in watercolors and many friends and family now have framed examples of his work as a lasting memory.