Carl Urbont, who died Saturday at age 89, was executive director of the 92nd Street Y for two decades, during which he oversaw the design and construction of the YM-YWHA’s 11-floor annex.

Urbont was raised in the Bronx. The son of a tailor, he sang with a synagogue wedding choir. He was discovered by a Metropolitan Opera conductor, who found him a place in the Met chorus as a boy soprano. He spent a decade in the Met chorus, leaving at age 17 after his voice abruptly changed to baritone.

After studying drama briefly at City College, Urbont became a member of Eva La Gallienne’s Civic Repertory Theater and spent several years touring in productions of Ibsen and Chekov. He also made occasional appearances in Yiddish theatrical productions. When the Civic Repertory folded in 1935, Urbont returned to college at NYU. He continued to act professionally, including appearances in two George S. Kaufman productions, “Tomorrow’s a Holiday,” and “The American Way.”

Fluent in five languages, Urbont was pressed into service as a translator for the Army Air Corps and spent most of World War II stationed in Morocco. It was Urbont’s discovery of the small, impoverished Jewish community in Marrakech that first interested him in the idea of social work. By pulling strings via Army supply channels, he was able to provide the community with soap, blankets, layettes, and other necessities. Urbont went trekking in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, where he met illiterate Berber Jews who made their living growing mint. Deeply impressed, he communicated with them by singing Hebrew psalms, some of which they knew by heart.

Back in New York, Urbont finished college and then earned a master’s in social work from Columbia University. After working briefly as director of a Lower East Side YMHA, he was hired as the assistant director of the Joint Distribution Committee in Paris. He stayed on for two years, working with refugees.

In 1951, Urbont returned to New York, where he was hired as assistant to Jack Nadel, who had founded the 92nd Street YMHA in 1930. In 1956, Urbont took over Nadel’s position as executive director. Evidently, he was already quite popular within the organization. According to the “Y Bulletin” at the time, “His preference for tweedy suits and casual attire, his rimless glasses and concise diction give him the appearance of a college professor – the type the coeds fall for.”

In 1966,Urbont received his doctorate in education from Columbia’s Teachers College.

The Henry Kaufman building opened on March 24, 1968, nearly doubling the 92nd Street Y’s square footage. In addition to classrooms and music practice rooms, the structure included eight stories devoted to single and double rooms for 200 young women.

In 1976, Urbont was named executive vice president of the 92nd Street Y. He retired in 1978.

In retirement, he split his time between Sarasota and New York, and he worked occasionally as a translator. He also led fund-raising efforts in the American Friends of Hebrew University.

Carl Urbont
Born December 25, 1915, in Brooklyn; died February 5 at Sarasota Memorial Hospital of congestive heart failure; survived by his wife of 57 years, Genia, his children, Al and Aviva, and three grandchildren.