Gail Hall Zarr, a writer and editor whose career included service with the Department of Parks and Recreation, died at her home in Stuyvesant Town on Jan. 31 at the age of 50.
She was diagnosed with cancer more than two years ago, according to her husband, Gary Zarr, a senior vice president of the American Museum of Natural History.
At the time of her death she was working on a volume of her own poetry for publication. She also edited books for Barnes & Noble and most recently was an editor of the Zagat Survey.
Born in Cooperstown, N.Y., she was valedictorian of her high school class of 1971 at Jefferson Central School. A child of her times, she came to New York City as youngster to see the Beatles, attended the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and marched in protests against the war in Vietnam, her husband said.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and English in 1975 at New York University where as a senior she met her future husband. “We found we were soul mates and were with each other ever since,” her husband said. She earned a Master of Arts degree in English from N.Y.U. in 1985.
Her first job after college was with Barnard College of Columbia University. She later worked in the communications department of the New York Public Library and from 1978 to 1980 she was an assistant to the deputy commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern said of her, “She was a very talented woman and a very courageous woman.”
“She said she had ‘a Mediterranean soul’ and we traveled to the Mediterranean a lot. Her favorite city was Rome. Our last trip was in October 2002 to Machu Pichu in Peru,” her husband recalled.
Her daughter, Emily, 15, a student at the Calhoun School, and a son, Daniel, 19, a musician, also survive. The Greenwich Village Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. The funeral was Feb. 3 at St. Mary’s Orthodox Church in Brooklyn and burial was in Greenwood Cemetery.
