Dagmar "Marty" Bischoff Garfinkel

Dagmar “Marty” Bischoff Garfinkel passed away at the side of her devoted husband on Monday, August 28, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, after a brief and sudden illness. To know her was to be enchanted by her. She was adored by so many and will be terribly missed by all who were privileged to know her. She is survived by her husband, Steven Garfinkel, sisters Ines “Iney” Byfield of Charlottesville, VA and Renate Meinecke of Berlin, nephew and niece Lou and Laura Byfield, niece Anna Byfield, great-niece and nephew Ava and Ian Byfield, and numerous other nephews, nieces, and grand nephews and nieces. Marty overcame many challenges in life to become the self-possessed lover of animals and fighter for their rights, outspoken (to say the least) advocate for social justice, avid-bordering-on-obsessed knitter, and award-winning sailor who conquered the hardest of hearts with her irresistible smile and laughter. Born in the later days of World War II, infant Marty contracted both tuberculosis and scarlet fever. After the war, Marty and Iney played in the bombed-out shells of buildings in post-war East Berlin. When she was 13 years old, shortly before the Berlin Wall went up Marty and her family escaped to West Berlin with nothing but the many layers of clothes they wore on their backs. For the next three years her family lived in a refugee camp - a large open space with only hanging cloth dividers to separate one family from another. As an adult she moved to the U. S. and eventually settled in Houston, where she opened her own accounting firm, Marty Bischoff, CPA. During the next 15 years, while running her business she also nurtured her passion for sailing. This culminated in her selling her accounting firm and home in Houston to sail and live for three years on a 46-foot sailboat with her then-husband, cruising the Caribbean and the U. S. Coast up to Chesapeake Bay. Following her sailing days, Marty lived in a remote village in Guatemala on Lake Atitlan where she built and operated a hotel and bakery for four years. The hotel still stands in San Pedro La Laguna and still bears the name “Hotel Marty.” Through all of the above she continued her life-long love for animals, which led to her helping conceive and create the still-operating Houston organization, Citizens for Animal Protection. While teaching sailing and speaking with one of her Jewish students about the religion, Marty realized that the ideas and tenets of Judaism matched her own innate beliefs and she began taking classes in Judaism, leading to her conversion in 1987. Never one for half-measures, she became a Bat Mitzvah a few years later. Upon returning to the U. S. in 2002, she re-opened her CPA firm, and shortly after that, met Steve Garfinkel online. They wrote to one another several times a day for two months before meeting in person, but once they did meet they were inseparable for the next 20 years. She led a life fuller than many, and will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

Dagmar "Marty" Bischoff Garfinkel

May 23, 1944 - August 28, 2023