Max Neufeldt

1938-2025

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Max Neufeldt, who died peacefully on June 27, 2025, at his home in Santa Barbara, at the age of 86.

Born to Mennonite parents in Sylvia, Kansas, in 1938, Max pursued his passion for art and design, studying at Ohio Wesleyan and the Pratt Institute. After postgraduate adventuring in Mexico, he moved to Venice, California, where he became known for his mixed media assemblage art.

Max met his wife, Susan, at the Unitarian Church in Santa Monica. Their first date, an unconventional trip to feed a friend’s pet rabbits, was the start of a remarkable 55-year journey together. Max, with his playful sense of humor, promised Susan “a laugh a day” as long as they were married—a promise he delivered on throughout their enduring partnership.

They moved to Ojai not long after they married, where a friend tipped them to a plot of land on the Mesa in Santa Barbara that had just a shed and no utilities to speak of. Over time, they built a family home that, in its own way, is an extension of Max’s artwork, and raised their daughter, Carla, there. Max was a devoted stay-at-home father, balancing his parenting responsibilities with his work as an artist. He was also a dear friend to many, a generous volunteer, doting uncle and grandfather, and enthusiastic amateur astronomer.

Max’s constancy and decency, gentle good humor, and his ability to see worth and beauty in mundane objects and actions, are the legacy of his art, the home he built, and the loving family for whom he made it all.

Max is survived by his wife, Susan Neufeldt; his daughter, Carla Neufeldt (Andy Markham); and his grandsons Max Abatie, Lukas Abatie (Larisa Leng), and Kaio Abatie, and many nieces and nephews — by blood and by friendship.

A memorial service will be held at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara on July 13th at 3 p.m. Donations in his name may be made to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.