Barry's
Let's Rent It

Custom Clothing

PARTIES EXCLUSIVELY

UNCUSTOMARY
SAVINGS!

HIGH TECH page 40

• Tents • Tables • Chairs
• China
• Paper Goods

4393 ORCHARD LAKE RD., N. OF LONE PINE LN
CROSSWINDS

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855-0480

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components for the systems re-
place old ones, so there is no un-
sightly wiring.
Mr. Barris, 26, originally in-
tended to be a lawyer. But before
he graduated from Wayne State
University School of Law and
took the bar exam, he decided
law was not his real calling. He
discussed his reservations with
his father, who suggested they
visit a franchise fair. At that
event, Mr. Barris was introduced
to Intellitricity, a Texas-based
home-automation company.
"I was really impressed with
what Intellitricity was doing,"
Mr. Baths says. "I discussed the
idea with my father, and he
helped me look into the possibil-
ity of getting a franchise to mar-
ket and install Intellitricity's
systems in this part of Michigan."
His grandfather, Donald Barris,
helped him with the start-up
costs.
Mr. Barris incorporated Vir-
tual Automation in late 1994 and
last summer began operating.

Currently, his only employee
is his fiancee, Rochelle Van
Bierendonck of Trenton. The two
were introduced by a mutual
friend while attending the Uni-
versity of Michigan. They will be
married in May and will move
into a home in the Farmington
Hills area.
Mr. Ban-is says that at the re-
cent Home and Garden Show in
Novi, the Virtual Automation ex-
hibit was a hit. A few days of ex-
posure brought in new business
for the company.
"Right now, a lot of people
don't know what home automa-
tion is and what it can do for
them. But I think it'll only be five
or ten years until people will won-
der how they ever got along with-
out it. Home automation is like
cellular phones; once people are
exposed to it, they've got to have
it," he says.

e Mr. Barns and Virtual
Automation can be reached at
(810) 851-1527. 0

In Orchard Mall • West Bloomfield

cusTor\ (LOTIIICR
Superior Custom Wardrobes

Qf

DWELLING page 37

0

Located on The Boardwalk (810) 932-1155

Previous Sales Not Included • Offer not valid in conjunction with other promotions.

STATE FARM INSURANCE

MARILYN J. GOLD-AGENCY
"I believe in personalized service"

• AUTO • HEALTH
• HOME • COMMERCIAL
• LIFE • IRAS • BUSINESS

as

NEXT TO THE BIRMINGHAM THEATRE
642-1690

Men's furnishings and accessories
19011 West Ten Mile Road
Southfield, Michigan 48075

810-353-1400

26561 W. 12 Mile Road, Suite 203, Southfield, MI 48034

(Between Southfield and Evergreen)

352-1080

Hours: Mon.-Sat. 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
Thursday 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.

PARKING AND ENTRANCE IN REAR

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THE DETROIT J EWISH NEWS

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Showroom hours: Mon.-Fri. 11-5, Sat. 11-3
or by appointment.

624-7300

Rutgers University and went on
to earn her doctorate in social-
policy analysis in education at
Harvard, where she later taught
adult learning and development
courses.
She was recruited to serve as
director of the adult national lit-
eracy project under Terrell Bell,
the U.S. Secretary of Education
during the Reagan years, al-
though Ms. Lerche is an avowed
Democrat. And she's authored a
few books on adult literacy pro-
grams that were published by Si-
mon & Schuster.
Entering the Establishment
— Ms. Lerche did a two-year
stint as manager of educational
relations at GM before joining
Ford — put her in the center of a
conservative, Anglicized world.
She admits she still had the "ar-
rogant swagger" of a Harvard
graduate when she came on
board and was forced to adjust to
the new culture.
It also meant moving to De-
troit, a city not exactly known for
its worldly charms.
She loves it, too.
"It's a very warm community.
It's accepting of a whole range of
experiences," she says.
Ms. Lerche, a native New
Yorker, was reared in a modern
Orthodox household. Her father
Harry, who is deceased, was ac-
tive in Histadrut, the Labor Zion-
ist organization; her mother, Mae
Wasserman Lerche, was a "more
practical" sort. She died last year.
Ms. Lerche shares her West
Bloomfield home with two cats

and serves on the board of direc-
tors at Bais Chabad of West
Bloomfield. She says her friends
would like to make a shidduch
for her, but she doesn't have a lot
of free time. When she finds a few
hours or the occasional weekend,
she runs, spends a few days at
a spa in Mexico or shops for an-
tiques.
At Ford, which is not exactly
teeming with Jews, let alone Or-
thodox Jews, she is considered
"wildly observant" because she
takes off work for holidays and
keeps kosher. Yet, her colleagues
admire her religious devotion,
even if others grouse when she's
not around for arduous labor ne-
gotiations on Saturdays.
Every other day of the week,
her coat is on the rack by 7 a.m.
and she's taking meetings and
phone calls. She figures she puts
in 60- to 70-hour weeks, every
week. That means she usually
leaves for home after sundown
on Friday. She tries in other ways
to keep Shabbat.
"My Jewish education and fa-
ther taught me Jewish women
have a very important role to
play. But for me, the most im-
portant part is the ethics, values
and practice (of Judaism)," she
says.
Ms. Lerche learned other
lessons from her father about
worker dignity and the value of
education, although he fled Eu-
rope before finishing high school.
But, she says, "My father
would never have bought a
Ford." ❑

