Happy 91st Birthday!

June 26, 2005 OUSA, NYC

The WOW Factor has a nice interview with the venerable Laura Kruskal:

At the June 27 – 30 OrigamiUSA convention in New York, Laura will present a new “Convention Crown,” as she’s been doing every year for well over twenty years.

Oh, did I mention that my friend Laura Kruskal will be turning 91 years old next Sunday, June 15^th? This post is my way of broadcasting my happy birthday wishes to her.


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Like everyone else who crosses her path, no doubt, I was immediately smitten by her vibrancy (she practically glows), her spontaneity and creativity (she gave some of us on the van an ad hoc lesson in making an origami envelope), and her self-sufficiency (she was traveling cross-country all alone, and planned to do the same on her return trip).

Without intending to, just by being herself, Laura Kruskal manages to shatter all of one’s existing stereotypes about what a woman her age should be or do.

At the time she and I met, I was doing research for a book I was planning on “the fine art of aging.” Laura, having just finished teaching at an origami conference in Albuquerque, wearing a big smile and a rhinestone-studded pin reading “I [HEART] ORIGAMI” looked to me like a glittering godsend. So we quickly made a date to get together as soon as we could so I could interview her.


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“I think it’s very important to stay focused on something you love to do every day,” she said softly, smiling brightly. For her, clearly, that “something” is origami. She strives to create at least one new, original origami fold every day of her life. And, when she’s home in Princeton – where she’s lived in the same house for sixty years and still does her own housework and cooking — she is often called on to teach origami in schools, libraries, retirement homes, at birthday parties, and even in prisons. “I stay busy,” she said. “And origami makes me happy. I love what I do.”

Read the entire piece by Bonnie Lee Black.  Hat tip:  Karen Reeds via Origami-L:

If you're anywhere close to Princeton, New Jersey, this Wednesday evening,
come to the Princeton Public Library Origami Group meeting, for this SNEAK
PREVIEW, Wednesday, June 11, 6:30-8pm: Laura Kruskal will teach her
original model, the 2014 OrigamiUSA Convention Crown!