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DISCO

At Odds

Dispute over naming rights
to cancer center spurs lawsuit.

ALAN ABRAMS

Special to the Jewish News

e dispute over renaming
etroit's largest cancer center
ultimately may be resolved in
court.
The Meyer and Anna Prentis Family
Foundation Inc., a non-profit organiza-
tion created by heirs to the late Meyer
Prentis, have filed suit against the
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer
Institute seeking $1.5 million in dam-
ages plus attorney fees and costs.
Prentis was the longtime General
Motors Corp. treasurer. The lawsuit
also names the Detroit law firm of
Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn
as defendants. The firm's top officer
said the allegations are "without merit."
The case has been assigned to
Oakland County Circuit Judge Wendy
Potts. Dr. Mark L. Silverman, a
Birmingham-based physician and
lawyer, filed the pleadings on behalf of
the Foundation.
"We were snookered by people who
were held in high esteem," said Marvin
Frenkel of Huntington Woods, a mem-
ber of both the Prentis Foundation and
Karmanos Institute boards. His wife,
Barbara, is one of the three surviving
daughters of Prentis.

At the heart of the issue is a May
1985 contract between the Prentis
Foundation and Comprehensive
Cancer Center of Metropolitan Detroit
Inc., Wayne State University and the
Michigan Cancer Foundation. The
contract commits the foundation to
contributing $1.5 million in annual
installments to WSU beginning that
year. In consideration of the contribu-
tion, all parties agreed to rename the
Comprehensive Cancer Center of
Metropolitan Detroit as the Meyer L.
Prentis Comprehensive Cancer Center
of Metropolitan Detroit.
The Prentis family made their first
donations in 1970, following the death
of Meyer Prentis from cancer.

Renaming Sought

The Prentis Foundation is seeking to
rename the Karmanos Institute as the
Meyer L. Prentis Comprehensive
Cancer Center of Metropolitan
Detroit.
In July 1994, Comprehensive Cancer
Center of Metropolitan Detroit Inc.
merged into the Michigan Cancer
Foundation. Silverman said the original
contract was legally binding on the
merged entity.
The following year, the Michigan

Prentis Leaves Legacy Of Philanthropy

ink using the pre-World. War

Information Meetings:
Tuesday, September 19 - 7 p.m.
Wednesday, October 25 - 7 p.m.

Max M. Fisher Federation Building

6735 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills

For information; including scholarship availability,
call Allison Rabinovitz at (248) 203-1497,
or e mail: rabinovitz@jfmd.org

-

This is federation

Visit us on the Web: www.thisisfederation.org/MIC

AO years, most executive jobs in
Detroit's automobile industry were
closed to Jews. Certainly, Henry
Ford's antisernitism, permeating vir-
tually all levels of the Ford Motor
Company, would have precluded any
Jews from working at the company.
But one man defied the prejudicial
system and rose through the ranks of
General Motors, Americds largest
corporation, to serve as its treasurer
for a remarkable 32 years. That man
was Lithuanian-born Meyer L.
Prentis, one of the most important
philanthropists in the history of
Detroit.
Prenris (1886-1970) came to

America as a. child. When he first
NriSited Detroit in . 1911, he saw an
iron and lumber town that had
largely been untouched by the auto-
motive industry By the time of his
retirement in 1952, Detroit was
known internationally as the
Automotive Capital of the World.
Prentis became the chief account-
ant and auditor for G.M. He was
promoted to comptroller in 1916,
and three years later was named
GM's treasurer. 'Working in tandem
with GM's Alfred P Sloan jr.. the
two built GM into a worldwide
industrial behemoth.
Prem ' . s directed a number of GM
subsidiaries in both the U.S. and

