Fern Feder, 87, died Aug. 23, 2016.
She was born and raised in Chicago, where she met her husband, Ed, and raised their two sons. Mrs. Feder became an advocate for deaf education after her son Mark was diagnosed as being deaf at birth. After the diagnosis, she completed a master’s degree at DePaul University in education for the deaf. She received her undergraduate degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago. The Feders moved to Tucson in 1988. Mrs. Feder had been a Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Lion of Judah for 15 years and established a Lion of Judah Endowment in 2005. For her philanthropy and volunteerism, she was chosen as the national recipient of the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award, which will be given posthumously later this month at the International Lion of Judah convention in Washington, D.C. Most recently, she was co-chair of the JFSA Women’s Philanthropy social action committee. She was active on JFSA’s Women’s Philanthropy board, past Women’s Division president and was the 2009 JFSA Woman of the Year. Mrs. Feder represented JFSA on the National Federation/Agency Alliance. She was involved with the Tucson Chapter of the Brandeis National Committee, Desert Caucus and Hadassah. She volunteered at The West, a volunteer-operated retail store that specializes in needlework supplies and donates its proceeds to local charities. She and her husband visited Israel 42 times.
Survivors include her husband of 67 years, Ed; sons, Mark (Beverly) Feder and Mike (Pattie) Feder; sister, Beverly Matulef; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Services were held at East Lawn Palms Mortuary with Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel officiating.
