Martin Edward Itzkowitz, a longtime English professor, actor, director, and author, died on October 17, 2026, at the age of 87. He was an academic through and through, but never without a good sense of humor.

Martin was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where he remembered the pushcarts on Pitkin Avenue and played stickball and “Johnny on the Pony.” Though he was a Brooklyn kid in Dodgers territory, he became a New York Baseball Giants fan at a young age. (He later adopted the Philadelphia teams as his own.)

As a teenager, he met Ann Posnansky, who would become his wife of 66 years. Martin graduated from Brooklyn College and earned his PhD at New York University. He moved to Philadelphia in 1965 to join the faculty of Temple University. He later became a tenured professor of Writing Arts in the Communications Department at Rowan University.

The stage was his other great love. Martin was a dedicated actor and director in community theater and served on the Theater Advisory Board and Play Selection Committee at the Allens Lane Art Center. He could also be spotted as an extra in several movies filmed in and around Philadelphia, and he was a long-time member of SAG-AFTRA.

In recent years he devoted himself to his own writing. He published a novel, two books of poetry, and a collection of short stories: The Days of Solomon Kahn, Undulations, Spent Lives, and Brownsville. Another novel, Bromberg’s Basement, will be published posthumously.

Martin was proudly Jewish and was a longtime member of Germantown Jewish Centre. For 30 years he presided over the family seder, a gathering that has served as a family reunion for more than a century.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Ann (née Posnansky); his children, Seth (Suzanne), Eve (Richard) Wyckoff, and Job (Jessica); his grandchildren, Miriam, Alexander, Harper, Kendall, Helena, Adam (Samantha), and Jason; his great-granddaughter, Lily; and his siblings, Joel Itzkowitz and Francine (Steven) Moss.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, October 21, 2026 at 12 Noon precisely at GOLDSTEINS’ ROSENBERG’S FUNERAL DIRECTORS, 6410 N. Broad St., Phila, PA 19126. Interment will follow at Montefiore Cemetery.

For those who cannot attend in person, a livestream of the service may be viewed: HERE

The family will be sitting shiva Wednesday following interment, Thursday 4-7 PM, Friday 2-5 PM and Sunday 4-7 PM at his late residence.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to Germantown Jewish Centre, the Yiddish Book Center, or a charity of the donor's choice.