Ivan Stuart Fleischman April 17, 1934 – June 8, 2026 | Age 92
Ivan Stuart Fleischman, 92, of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully at the Brockton VA Hospice Center on June 8, 2026. Born on April 17, 1934 – on his parents’ wedding anniversary – he was the son of the late Mae (Marion) Kaplan of Woburn, Massachusetts, and the late Pierce Fleischman of Syracuse, New York.
Ivan grew up in Syracuse alongside his older brother, the late Richard Fleischman, in a family rooted in the community through Fleischman Furniture, the family business. A natural performer from an early age, he acted on stage and worked as a radio announcer before finding his way into marketing and advertising – curious, restless, and rarely content with the ordinary.
Cars were a lifelong passion. As a young man he raced them around a track, and it was his brother Richard who gave him his first – a Model A Ford that stayed with him in spirit long after the car itself was gone. Before he and Melissa married, he had assembled what became known as a “Corvair garden” – six or more Chevrolet Corvairs parked in the backyard of his home. He was a founding member and at one point president of the local Corvair club, attended the legendary Hershey car show multiple times, and made lasting friendships with people who loved old cars as much as he did. The Corvairs were eventually sold, but the pull of antique cars never left him. He acquired a 1915 Ford Model T – the one he kept the longest – and later a 1930 Model A in rough shape that he had fully restored.
After college, Ivan served in the United States Navy during the Cold War, stationed aboard a Radar Picket Ship – having set his sights on flying jets, only to be grounded by allergies before he ever left shore. The dream of flight stayed with him – eventually earning his private pilot’s license as an adult. Through his work with the Unitarian Universalist Church in Boston, he traveled to Washington, D.C. to photograph the March on Washington – present, camera in hand, when Martin Luther King Jr. spoke.
Ivan met Melissa, and they married in 1980. Their son Mitch was, without question, one of their greatest joys – a source of pride that only grew with every passing year.
Later in his career, Ivan joined the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as an employment counselor, spending twenty years helping people find their footing in the working world. During that same period, he became a Justice of the Peace – something he had long wanted to do. He presided over close to 800 wedding ceremonies, including that of his beloved niece Cyndi Fleischman to her husband Ken Fiacco, and was a founding member of the Massachusetts Justice of the Peace Association. He had a deep belief in helping people find their person and in
making the moment right, something he brought to every ceremony he performed.
He loved dogs deeply. He had a gift for seeing the world on his own terms – and for naming it that way too. Those who knew him well will know exactly what that means.
Ivan is survived by his loving wife, Melissa (Hamelin) Fleischman; his son, Mitch Fleischman; his sisters-in-law Carole Fleischman and Paula Hamelin; his nephew Frank Fleischman, his children Shana and Dylan, and his wife Karen Korteling; his nieces Jill (Fleischman) Pasqualoni and her husband Paul, and their children Dante, Tito, and Cami; Cyndi (Fleischman) Fiacco and her husband Ken, and their children Louis, Preston, and Tatum; Nanci (Fleischman) Solomon and her husband Neal, and their children Nicholas and Nathan; Kassia (Hamelin) Tessier and her husband Ed, and their children Ava and Cassidy; Ilaria (Hamelin) Zinser and her husband Greg, and their children Elliana, Samuel, and Nathaniel; and Serena Hamelin and her partner Lyman Messer, and their children Liviana and Lyman Messer III. He was predeceased by his brother Richard Fleischman and his brother-in-law Andrew Hamelin.
A graveside service will be held on Friday, June 12, 2026 at 10:45 AM at Knollwood Memorial Park, Canton, Massachusetts. All are welcome.
Donations in Ivan’s memory may be made to ZERO Prostate Cancer and the Dementia Society of America.
The family wishes to express their deepest gratitude to the ICU and 8th Floor Oncology physicians, nurses, aides, and staff at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and to the doctors, nurses, aides, and staff of the Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at the VA in Brockton – whose skill, compassion, and humanity made all the difference in Ivan’s final months.
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