Saul Rutin, 84, died Nov. 4, 2018, from complications of PSP (progressive supranuclear palsy), a rare neurological disease often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s. Mr. Rutin was a pharmacist. Survivors include his wife, Dian; sons, Aron (Carla) and Eric (Carolyn); stepsons, Eric and Jim (Denise) Lieberthal; and six grandchildren. A celebration… Read more »
David J. Lyons, 79, died Nov. 2, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Lyons grew up in Minneapolis. Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Myrna Lyons; sons Jonathan (Jamie) Lyons of Marietta, Georgia, and Brett (Marlo) Lyons of Los Gatos, California; sisters Barbara Maurice Hobbs of Minneapolis and Lisa… Read more »
Ruth Sokol Graff, 87, died Oct. 30, 2018. Mrs. Graff was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Girls’ Latin School in Boston and graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in business management. She worked for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston and later in New York City. She… Read more »
Vivian Mae Workman, age 78, died Sept. 12, 2018, in Evergreen, Colorado, after a battle with lymphoma. Mrs. Workman was born in Brooklyn, New York, to David and Pauline Brande. She was a 1957 graduate of East Rockaway High School and a 1961 graduate of the University of Rochester… Read more »
Lola Lipsitz Grabb died peacefully at her home in Tucson on Sept. 29, 2018 due to complications related to cancer. Lolita (as she became known to friends) was born on March 20, 1929, in Santiago de Cuba to Julio and Emma Lipsitz, immigrants to Cuba from Lithuania. Lolita first… Read more »
Beatrice Lippel, 82, died Sept. 24, 2018. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she was the eldest of three children. An accomplished pianist, she earned her bachelor’s in music at Brooklyn College and master’s in musicology at Indiana University. She married Berthold Lippel in 1959 and they had… Read more »
Donald Simon, 88, of Delray Beach, Florida, died Sept. 16, 2018. Mr. Simon’s first career was in the garment center of New York, selling children’s wear. Upon moving to Tucson in 1989, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from Prescott College, and worked for Jewish Family &… Read more »
Harold Murray Hirshberg of Park Ridge, New Jersey, 99, died Sept.18, 2018. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Mr. Hirshberg attended Rutgers University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration and a Master of Arts degree. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he… Read more »
Adam Brish, M.D., age 93, of Marquette, Michigan, and Sun City West, Arizona, died Sept. 11, 2018 in Surprise, Arizona. Dr. Brish was born in Lodz, Poland, to Sura and Yeshayahu Brysz. A Holocaust survivor, he ultimately survived by hiding in the Lodz Ghetto with his father, until liberation… Read more »
Howard Lee Rapoport, 89, died Sept. 19, 2018. Educated in St. Louis, Mr. Rapoport graduated from University City High School and later Washington University with a degree in business. Among his duties while in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict was serving as his company’s bugler. He later… Read more »
Molly Shenitzer, 95, died Sept. 4, 2018. Mrs. Shenitzer was born and raised in Chicago, the youngest of four children of Abe and Rose Slutsky. She married Hyman Shenitzer in 1944 and together they ran Hy’s Food Market on Chicago’s Westside. In 1953, they packed up their two young… Read more »
Eleanor Gellman, 91, died Thurs., Aug. 16, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. Mrs. Gellman was a native of St. Louis. She was a founding member of the Central Reform Synagogue. Survivors include her son, Larry (Kristen) Gellman of Tucson and Aspen, Colorado. Services and interment were in St. Louis.… Read more »
Robert J. Palles, 77, died on Sept. 5, 2018. Mr. Palles, the son of Maurice and Mildred Palles, was born in Chicago. He moved to Tucson in 1978, where he was the owner of Palles Insurance Agency. Survivors include his wife, Eileen Tucker Palles; children, Lawrence (Darcy Renfro) Palles… Read more »
Nathan Shapiro, 100, died Sept. 4, 2018. Mr. Shapiro was born in New York City, the youngest child of Aaron and Gussie Shapiro. The first in his family to attend college, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in elementary education. While at City College of… Read more »
Those who knew Tucson philanthropist and community activist Joan Kaye Cauthorn, who died on Sept. 3, 2018 at age 75, describe her as one-of-a-kind. “Joan was a one-of-a-kind, kind-hearted force of nature who spent much of her energy making the world a better place. She cared deeply about the… Read more »
U.S. Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, right, place notes in the Western Wall in Jerusalem, March 19, 2008. (Brian Hendler/JTA)
Six-term Arizona Republican Sen. John Sydney McCain III, 81, died at the family ranch in Sedona, Arizona, Aug. 26, one day after declining further treatment for brain cancer. Today, he lies in state in the U.S. Capitol, where a formal ceremony will take place in the Capitol Rotunda at… Read more »
Richard Siegel worked at the National Foundation for Jewish Culture for 28 years (HUC)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Richard Siegel, an educator who advocated for Jewish culture and arts and co-edited the seminal “Jewish Catalog” series of guides to “do-it-yourself” Judaism, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 70 and had been battling cancer for two years, according to a friend and colleague,… Read more »
Dorothy “Dotte” Sayre, 90, died June 30, 2018. Mrs. Sayre was born and raised in Chicago. She attended the National College of Education and taught pre-K and kindergarten. She and her husband, Julian, moved to Tucson in 1959. Mrs. Sayre was an active volunteer in the Tucson Jewish community,… Read more »
Eugene “Gene” J. Hameroff, 96, died June 24, 2018. Mr. Hameroff was born to immigrant parents, Abraham and Sarah Hameroff, in Cleveland, Ohio. Upon graduating from Ohio State University, he married Terri, and began working in advertising. He opened his own advertising agency in 1955 and grew it into… Read more »
Francine Shacter, 90, of Tucson, formerly of Bethesda and Highland, Maryland, died June 14, 2018. Mrs. Shacter was born in Los Angeles, graduated from Hollywood High School, and briefly attended UCLA before marrying and raising four children. Years later, in the middle of life, while working full time, she… Read more »
