The
Ben Teitel

Legac

Thousands
of Jews in
Detroit and
Israel have
benefited
from the
wealth of a
man who
said most of
his education
came from
hanging out
on 12th
Street,
downtown.

T

he graduate of 12th
Street died a
wealthy man.
In 1985, when can-
cer overtook Ben Teitel, the
67-year-old Jewish
Detroiter had transformed
himself from a wild teen-
ager into an apartment
king. The tall charismatic
youth, who skipped school
to hang out in pool halls
downtown, had become the
owner and operator of some
1,000 lakeside apartment
units in southwest
Michigan.
In his later days, Mr.
Teitel also maintained pri-
vate residences in
Southfield, South Haven

and Bal Harbor, Fla. Touch
Of Class, his 80-foot, mil-
lion-dollar yacht, decorated
with black marble, sleek sil-
ver candlesticks and mir-
rors, was featured on the
television show, "Miami
Vice."
After Mr. Teitel's death,
his nephew and executor
Gerald Cook opened Ben's
wallet. Among credit cards
and phone numbers of
friends and family, Mr.
Cook found an anonymous
poem:
The clock of life is wound
but once,
and no man has the power
To tell just when that
clock will stop
at a late or early hour.
Now is the time to work,
to live, to do with a will;
Place no faith in tomor-
row,
for the clock may then be
still.
Mr Cook, charged in

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

Philanthropist Ben Teitel took pride in his good credit.

1985 with donating Ben
Teitel's fortune to Jewish
causes in Detroit and Israel,
considers that poem another
valuable part of his uncle's
legacy. To him, it's an
urgent call to make every
day count, carpe diem.
"There are people who
say, 'Yes, I want to benefit
the community,' " Mr. Cook
says. "Many say, 'I'll do it
later.' But then they die,
and they haven't done it.
Ben had written wills 10
years before he died that
left money for charity..."
But Mr. Teitel didn't
specify beneficiaries. That
became the privilege of Mr.
Cook, who, as an attorney at
Honigman Miller Schwartz
and Cohn, felt qualified to
carry out the responsibility.
Today Mr. Cook feels hon-
ored to be named the
trustee of the Teitel Trust.
As such, he is in charge of
determining which Jewish

organizations to fund — for
example, B'nai B'rith Youth
Organization, Ramah-Noam
Summer Camp, Operation
Exodus — as well as the
amount of each contribu-
tion.
But Mr. Cook also has
regrets. His uncle, not he,
should have had the oppor-
tunity to give away the
money he worked so hard to
earn, he says."I have fun
giving away his money. He
should've had that fun."
Ben Teitel, as a youngster
and adult, loved having fun.
He disguised his intelli-
gence with a down-to-earth
demeanor and bad English.
He hung out at local bars
and pubs and insisted that
he learned more galavant-
ing around the streets of
Detroit than he would have
at Northern High School —
even if he had attended on a
regular basis. He called
himself the "12th Street
Graduate."
For fun during the sum-
mers, Mr. Teitel vacationed
at Mendelson's Atlantic
Resort, a recreational out-
post in South Haven. In Mr.
Teitel's younger days, it was
a small summer spot — pop-

TEITEL page 118