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From 'Ford Conn
To fiord Count

David Hermelin: U.S. Ambassador to Norway.

D

PHIL JACOBS

Editor

By no means is this complete. But here's a sam-
ple of what David Hermelin has done:
President, American ORT Federation.
President, Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
Board chairman, Jewish Home for Aged.
Board chairman, Karmanos Cancer
Institute.
Board chairman, Operation
Independence.
Chairman, Allied Jewish Campaign.
International chairman, State of Israel

Bonds.
President, World ORT Union.
Vice President, Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit.
Vice President, Pistons-Palace Foundation.
Vice chairman, UJA.
Boards: UJA, Children's Hospital, Community
Foundation of Southeastern Michigan, Interfaith Round
Table, Detroit Symphony, Hebrew University, Israel Tennis
Centers, Michigan Opera Theater, Weizmann Institute,
Clover Hill Park Cemetery, American Friends of Hebrew
University, United Way, Bar-Ilan University, United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Jewish Community
Center, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,
Detroit Institute of Arts, Hillel Day School, HIAS.
Hermelin is a director and stockholder with Ha-Lo
Industries; Active Aero, Inc.; USA Jet; Arbor Drugs, Inc.;
Arena Associates, Inc.; Sweet Ideas/Bulk International;
Phoenicia American-Israel Flat Glass Ltd.; Village Green
Apartments; Real estate developer and owner.

11/21
1997

72

avid Hermelin is in his "office."
It's Sunday morning in a Bloomfield
Hills eatery Hot coffee in one hand, a story
about the exploits of the University of
Michigan football team in the other, he holds court as
people around him navigate their way through newspa-
pers. Like the coffee, the talk is plentiful.
Somewhere near the back of the restaurant sits
Hermelin. He hasn't touched his pink grapefruit sec-
tions. It's 9 a.m. and he's completing one meeting and
getting ready for the next.
A small line of well-wishers passes by. They all want
to shake hands with the man they call "Mr.
Ambassador."
The U.S. Senate recently confirmed Hermelin as
United States ambassador to Norway, making him
Michigan's first Jewish ambassador to a foreign coun-
try He received bi-partisan support. Indeed, his intro- i
ductions were made by both Michigan senators: Carl
Levin, a Democrat, and Republican Spencer Abraham.
Hermelin and his wife Doreen, soon will leave for
Norway where on Jan. 1 Hermelin will begin a three-
year service in Oslo.
To those who know David Hermelin, he's a success-
ful businessman, a co-owner of the Palace of Auburn
Hills, a staunch investor in and supporter of Israel.
When 2,000 teen Maccabi athletes marched into the
Palace in August 1990, it was Hermelin, the master of
ceremonies, who greeted each contingent.
Three years later, he joked that he would be on all
three El Al Michigan Miracle Mission planes leaving
Metro Airport for Israel. He was, sort of. His video
welcoming the 1,300 Michiganders to Israel played on
all three planes. He has been seen on escalators in con-
vention halls all over the land. He counts among his
friends some of the best-known figures in the world.
"He's a great friend and a great person," said indus-
trialist Max Fisher. "I'm glad to see he got the appoint- _,
ment, but it's a great loss for the local community"
David Hermelin also is known as a man who has
time for everyone, a man who always returns phone
calls, who sits for incalculable hours at Formica-top
tables in restaurants, stirring cold coffee and listening
to people, trying to help with problems and questions
Seven months ago, while visiting his accountant,