Our troubled world lost another little bit of its goodness, greatness, class, elegance and grace when Arthur Spiro passed as gently as could be, late in the evening of March 12, 2022, at his home in Little Silver. He was attended diligently and faithfully by his wife, Beth, whom he cherished beyond imagination, and his beloved children, Allison and Justin, and died a few days after his 71st birthday. He fought to live his life his way, on his terms, compromising nothing, and to live well and fully after being diagnosed with an aggressive prostate cancer eight years prior.
Arthur was the only child of Dee and Manny Spiro, growing up in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and moving to Sayreville, New Jersey, for high school after his father bought a business in New Jersey. A newcomer to New Jersey, by the end of high school he was the student body president, was voted “Class Wolf” and, in a runaway, “Best Dressed.” He had a mustache and a first Corvette. As anyone who knew him understood, Artie was a “car guy” who never outgrew the impulse to clean his vehicles with a toothbrush and Q-tips.
Arthur went off to Monmouth College, now University, and one year later, in 1971, met Beth, a first-year undergraduate, two days after her arrival on campus. By the end of that semester they were inseparable to the night of his death, where Beth held Artie’s hands tightly as his battery ran out. They celebrated their 48-year marriage last summer; a 48 years filled with children, life, love, adventure, striving, great times and challenges, beauty, humor, achievement and attainment, flowers and cars, grandchildren – the lights of his life – friends, and colleagues. In his occupational realm, he was so many people’s “office dad”; to his children’s peers he was the dad they wished that they had. So proud of his children, he ensured that they knew it and know it. Artie spoke to Allison and Justin every day, virtually without fail. Artie’s impact on others, even strangers, was incalculable. When he went to treatment, parking attendants would come out of their booth, hug him, and ask how he was doing. Nurses would leave their station to greet him, not just because he was the handsomest man in the tristate area, but because that was his magnetism. Who has impact like that?
Beth says, “This was his life.” His passage was almost undetectable, yet he knew he was not alone, and so he had the peaceful moving on that he earned, deserved, and that Beth and his loved ones prayed for.
“Art,” as he was known in business, went into the fragrance industry, and rose through the ranks by accepting mentorship and working harder than anyone else, rising to positions of award-winning influence nationally and internationally in the industry, while always finding the time and space to nurture others as he himself was nurtured. Art was surprised, and felt blessed and humbled, by the many cards, letters, texts, emails and calls from people he meant so much to. Those who honored him in this way should take heart that he came to know what you all felt for him before he died. It mattered to him.
He and Beth married soon after college graduation, and Art went to work for Revlon, working in the plant and factory, starting as a “college boy” at the bottom, benefiting from tough love mentorship he received. One mystery headhunter later and Art went to work for Christian Dior. Never forgetting how mentorship helped to make him, Art was a willing pupil. Within a few short years he was a vice president, then he went to Liz Claiborne, where he was for many years, leaving for a year to be the president of Guerlain, the venerable 200-year-old French fragrance company – difficult job and difficult period as Beth had breast cancer, France was too far, and the job was difficult under the circumstances. So he returned to Liz Claiborne, where the bulk of his career remained and where he made his name as the head of an award-winning division. Art developed the fragrances Curve for Men, Curve for Women, Juicy Couture, Usher, and fragrances for celebrities, culminating in his 2013 induction to the Fragrance Foundation Circle of Champions. When Liz was sold to Elizabeth Arden, Art continued till he (sort of) retired.
Artie loved family, having lost both his parents in their early 60s, he cherished friends as brothers and sisters in the way that only someone who had no siblings does. His daughter, Allison, and his son, Justin, were treasured sources of pride, enjoyment, and accomplishment. His grandchildren, Joshua, Lucy, and Violet were the bright shining lights who brought unimaginable joy. His grandson Joshua, only 9, expressed how angry he was about losing “Poppy.” In his innocent purity Joshua speaks for us all.
Artie was a disciplined, fit, athletic man whose self-care was a model for how doctors wished their patients behaved. He ran marathons and triathlons, and stayed strong to the end. He loved his friends and was never without generosity and humility despite his magnetism and authority. He loved Beth with all his capacity. There is a hole now where Artie used to be. He would want it filled with memories of good times and good and fine things, the positivity in life, and would not want us to grieve forever, even though in ways many of us might. He was such a big man.
An anecdote. Possessed of a quick wit with a dark or sarcastic edge, Artie, the car guy, had a car coming off lease, and posed this question to his oncologist, “Doc, give it to me straight, should I lease or should I buy?” People talk about coping with cancer and its treatment as a war and a fight. Artie fought hard, and only surrendered at the very, very end to the idea that cure could not be forthcoming. He fought without complaint or self-pity, only gratitude for those who tried to help him and with bravery and resolve to live. He explored every option and then some, and was the first person in the country to be trialed on the CART-T protocol for solid cancer tumors, and while it did not work for him, his contribution to the science is now bearing actual promise for others. To that end, donations in Artie’s memory should be sent to Columbia University, Hematology-Oncology Department, Attn: Ana Ignat, 177 Fort Washington Ave., Suite 6-435,
New York, NY 10032. Checks should be made out to “The Trustees of Columbia University”
With Attn: Prostate Research Fund/Dr. Stein in the memo section.
Art is survived by his dear wife Beth; his daughter Allison; his son Justin and spouse Jennifer; grandchildren Joshua, Violet and Lucy; Twyla, the Golden Doodle; Beth’s sister Cheryl and her husband Randy; Sarah and Matt Hirsch; and by the thousands of family, friends and colleagues whose lived he touched.
So, how to summarize a life lived well and with generosity and honor. Art was both handsome and beautiful, elegant, and cultured, playful, and funny, graceful and giving. Smart about so many things, he had a gift for separating wheat from chaff, and lived with a clear sense of the line between right or wrong, acceptable, and unacceptable, and conducted himself as an honorable man with great personal integrity. He traveled the world and so was cultured and classy, yet was down to earth and hewed to simple values of love, appreciation, gratitude, and family. Artie had a well-developed feminine side and could laugh or cry, sometimes both simultaneously, and often for longer than you might think possible. For someone who worked hard, and he did work hard, he was always engaged and attuned to family life, and participated fully. He was loved and loving. He lived a full life and died without regrets.
The article originally appeared in the March 24 – 30, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
