Gerry Holzman, Master Carver of a New York Merry-Go-Round, Dies at 90

Gerry Holzman, a master woodcarver who conceived, and toiled for 20 years to build, a merry-go-round that celebrated New York State with riding animals like a beaver, a cow and a pig, as well as portrait panels of citizens like Susan B. Anthony, Grandma Moses and Theodore Roosevelt, died on Dec. 8 at his home in Brunswick, Maine. He was 90.

The cause was heart failure, his daughter Nancy Holzman said.

A former high school teacher, Mr. Holzman was the head carver and fund-raiser of the Empire State Carousel, a whimsical and educational reminder of state fairs and carnivals past. The carousel, which is 36 feet wide and 23 feet high, was built with the help of about 1,000 volunteer carvers, woodworkers, painters and quilters. It is a permanent and popular attraction at the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., where it opened in 2006.

“I’m a real history buff,” Mr. Holzman told The New York Times in 1999, when the carousel was by his estimation “97 to 98 percent done.” “I’m one of these people who truly love New York. This is my whole life.”

The carousel is the signature creation of Mr. Holzman’s late-blooming woodworking career, during which he also restored antique carousel art and carved walking sticks, decorative moldings, signs, plaques, human and animal figures, and religious works.

His clients included the Cunard cruise line, Disney World and the South Street Seaport.

There were once as many as 7,000 hand-carved carousels in the United States. But only about 225 currently remain, according to the National Carousel Association.

“This is very much a product of my generation passing on its heritage to the next generation,” Mr. Holzman told The Times.