Gregory Hyman obit

GREGORY HYMAN Obituary

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HYMAN--Gregory E. June 25, 1947 - May 1, 2026. The Man Who Tickled the World. As the Cat Stevens' song goes, the baby, Greg Hyman came into the world in the usual way but that is where he diverges from most others. His birth parents were Constance Catherine Eaton and Julian Holzmann Hyman. Their marriage was a short one but there was time for Steve, his younger brother, to show up. However, he was never Greg's playmate as would be expected. No, Greg's interest in all sorts of electronics consumed his life early on. To begin, Aunt Lilly, the beloved Hymn house keeper, was so much more in Greg's life and filled in as a psudo surrogate mother figure for him even at times like when parents went to conferences to talk with their child's teachers. After several years as a single father, Julian married Jean Miller Doob with her two children Barbara (Wayne) Dickey and Fred Doob to create a happy, crazy, time of pranks and wonderful school memories. Greg even offered his classmates lessons in how to invent. At 11 years old, he sold "Rocket Ship" rides in a discarded washing machine with a baby carriage cockpit. Other family lore stories are the exploding toilet set prank he played on Jean and the talking surplus WWII bomb used as a promotional curiosity at a local theater. As a kid, Greg had an entrepreneurial talent that grew from offering those inventing lessons to providing worms to avid fishermen. Yes, look up how to encourage worms to come out of the ground on their own without digging! (Not, an environmentally friendly idea). These interests of Greg's were not aligned with the standard curriculum but his teachers always seemed to be able to find a creative way to help Greg be successful if not spark Greg's appreciation for reading. Dr. Paul A. Firestone and the New Rochelle Academy along with the students were like family to him. He attended Cornel for electrical engineering but his attention was elsewhere and so was his quest to find a job that fulfilled his creative imagination and kept him from having to move back home. Greg's passion for money making led to paring it with his wizardry for all things electric like: home security system, car phones, game show sounds for television, musical toys, electronic toys, toy repairs, installing a full sensory classroom for a special needs school, and more. His game show sound bank became his first toy, Little Maestro Toy Piano Organ. At times he worked with collaborators. Greg invented hundreds of toys including some of the most popular playthings in our American culture like Alphie the Robot, Talking Barney, and Tickle Me Elmo. His work has earned several awards including the 2007 Toy of the Year, Tickle Me Elmo TMX, an induction into the Hasbro Inventor's Hall of Fame for Baby All Gone, and recognition from Playskool for inventing Talking Barney, the largest-volume producing toy in a single year. Greg had a total of 120 plus "children" as he affectionately called his toys. Greg donated his prototypes, toys, and bench notes to The Strong, Museum of Play in Rochester New York that they used in a debut exhibit there and now store in their extensive archive. Greg was married several times: Jean F. Berzon, Linda Gale, Marcy Berkowitz, Marsha Balbier, and, had a longtime partner, Deborah Nelson. Greg was one of the original South Florida Sunshine Santas, a group of independent toy and game inventors. He delighted in all the nieces and nephews in the Berkowitz family. He often used them and the children of friends, and of co-creator, Larry Greenberg, to test his prototype creations. In addition he was a motivator and mentor to Deborah's son, Desiderio Sartelli. Desiderio went on to patent his own creative idea and bring it to market himself. "To be an inventor is an honor. This country was founded on invention. There are no courses you can take to do this." - Greg Hyman, self-taught. There will be no funeral or ceremonies at this time.