Nate Kellman
Nate Kellman, an immigrant to pre-state Palestine and a longtime resident of Denver, passed away Sept. 5, 2021 at the age of 100.
Funeral services took place Sept. 10 at Feldman Chapel with interment at Emanuel Cemetery. Rabbi Steven Foster officiated.
Born Jan. 15, 1921 in a shtetl in Poland, he was the youngest of four children in an Orthodox family. He emigrated to Palestine, where his brother Reuven had already settled, shortly before WW II. He spent a period in the British army there.
After the war, Mr. Kellman returned to Europe to search for family members who had survived the Holocaust. While there, he helped a group of French Jewish refugees find passage to Palestine. He also lived in Hamburg, West Germany, where he taught Hebrew to Jewish children who were Holocaust survivors.
He came to New York in 1951, but decided to move to Denver after seeing a photograph of Colorado.
Arriving in Denver in 1953, he found work in a small soap and chemical company and later started his own business, Fenko Chemical. He also later had a firm that specialized in rental properties and loans and formed a partnership business, the Lee Soap Co. Mr. Kellman retired in the mid-1960s.
He met and married his first wife Yona in 1957. They had two children. After his divorce, he married the former Carmen Melamed, who had been one of his Hebrew students in Hamburg.
According to Mr. Kellman’s family, “He was a fun-loving Saba (grandfather) and took his whole family for a Hawaii adventure to celebrate his 90th birthday. No matter how many cities he visited, he held a particularly deep love for Jerusalem and hoped to visit one more time, but his health in these last years prevented him.”
Mr. Kellman is survived by his wife Carmen Melamed Kellman; son, Bernie; daughter Edna “Eddie” (Marty) Westerman; and grandchildren, Max, Adam and Frances.
Memorial contributions may be made to Trees for Israel or National Jewish Health.
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