Obituary: Martin Arlook

Martin M. Arlook, age 85, passed away peacefully Friday, Oct. 13, 2017, at his home in Sandy Springs in presence of his loving wife, Elinor, his son, Richard, and his grandchildren.

Marty was a native of Jersey City, N.J., and served in various senior executive service positions for more than 50 years with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the nation’s premier law enforcement agency in the protection of the labor rights of private-sector employees. He retired as regional director of the NLRB in Atlanta in 2011. At the time of his retirement from the Atlanta Region, where he supervised all agency operations in Georgia, northern Alabama and eastern Tennessee, he was the longest-serving active regional director in the country. He also served the NLRB in Puerto Rico, first as regional attorney and then as regional director (from 1969 to 1982). He began his NLRB career in the Manhattan Regional Office in 1960. He was a member of the Bars of New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia.

Arlook graduated with honors from the Milford Preparatory School in Connecticut and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. He received his law degree from Rutgers University, where he served as an editor of the law review, and, from 1956 until 1959, served as an assistant staff judge advocate at 3rd Army headquarters in Atlanta. He retired as a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. After active military service, Marty attended New York University, where he received his master of laws degree in labor law.

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Marty’s first and most enduring love was his family. He is survived by beloved wife Elinor, to whom he was married for more than 57 years. Son Richard (Nicole) heads The Arlook Group, a personal management, production and consulting firm in the entertainment industry in Beverly Hills, Calif. Marty adored his five grandchildren, Rachel, Emily, Ethan, Dylan and Romy, and was devoted to sister Florence. The Arlooks’ younger son, Edward, required and received specialized health care and passed away in 2006.

Marty loved the law and felt privileged to devote his career to public service. At the time of his retirement in 2011, he said, “I shall miss doing the good work we do and, of course, those with whom it is done.” He mentored scores, if not hundreds, of labor lawyers, whom he loved and respected and who loved and respected him in return. He was widely admired by those who knew him for his knowledge, his love of work, his love of music, his sense of humor (and ability to terrifically tell a hilarious, and at times bawdy, joke) and his pursuit of life to the fullest.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. The funeral was held Monday, Oct. 16, at Bernheim Apter Kreitzman Suburban Funeral Chapel in Livingston, N.J., with Rabbi Matthew Gerwitz officiating; burial followed in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Fairview, N.J. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Weinstein Hospice, 3150 Howell Mill Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30327, www.weinsteinhospice.com. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.