We will all miss Andy!

Andrew Sackin
May 25, 1951 - August 24, 2021
Kansas City, Missouri - Andrew Robert Sackin passed away on August 24, 2021 at the age of 70.

Born in Kansas City, he attended Hale Cook, Bingham and Southwest High Schools. He graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia (MU) in 1973 with a B.A. degree.

Following his graduation from college he moved to New York City to continue studying composition and the performing arts at American Musical and Dramatic Academy and The Julliard School with a focus on voice and dance. Andy performed his own compositions as well as popular songs in various venues throughout that city in the 1970s and into the early 1980s. During that time, he also danced in "A Chorus Line" on Broadway and appeared in minor roles off and on Broadway and in films. He was for a time a regular on the daytime drama, "The Guiding Light".

When a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis sidelined his career as a performer, he continued to compose music, wrote and produced plays and was the founding member of the theatrical company, SRO Productions. Concurrently, he retrained for a career on Wall Street, and eventually joined first Paine Webber and then UBS where he was a partner and investment portfolio manager until his semi-retirement in 2015. At that time his own declining health and his father's need for care brought him back permanently to the Kansas City area.

Andy contributed to many charitable organizations especially those involving the arts, animal welfare and the natural world, the performing arts and the MU Libraries Special Collections. He was on the strategic development board for the MU College of Arts and Sciences and was instrumental in founding and served as first president of the Missouri Student Foundation Board. He was a member of several organizations, including the Society of American Poets, the NYSL Poets Group, the Dramatists Guild of America, SAG AFTRA and Actors Equity. His book of poetry, "Seasons Remembered" was published by the Exposition Press when he was only 24.

His friendships were various, numerous and usually life-long. He remained in close contact with many classmates from grade school and high school, his fraternity brothers in Phi Gamma Delta, artists from many disciplines and friends he made while working on Wall Street and living in New York. He was married for a time to his high school sweetheart, the former Margaret Sauer, and they remained best friends until her death in 2014.

Andy is preceded in death by his father and mother, Erwin and Elaine Sackin, sister Judy Kravat and his beloved dog Maximillian. He is survived by his sister, Patty Nelson, brothers-in-law Steve Nelson and Jeff Kravat, an aunt Marjorie Sackin, 10 nieces and nephews and 7 great nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Andy's memory to The Parkinson's Disease Foundation, The Arthritis Foundation, the University of Missouri at Columbia or a charity of one's choice. A life celebration will be held at a date yet to be determined.

Published by Kansas City Star on Sep. 12, 2021.

Andy's video. Click the link to see a video from Andy's Celebration of Life, put together by Bob Levitt. It includes photos from childhood on, set to music that Andy composed, played, and sang himself.