Doug Ross and teacher Amanda Rosman of Detroit

Temple Recognizes
Ross As Visionary,
Humanist

Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills will honor
Doug Ross as a "Humanistic Jew with Vision" at its
8 p.m. April 18, Shabbat celebration.
Ross will speak about his life, his humanism, his
work and his continued vision for a better reality.
"In every generation, there are people who refuse
to accept the status quo," Birmingham Temple Rabbi
Tamara Kolton says of Ross. "They are those whose
vision of what the world should be starts in their
minds, but continues with their hands and heart as
they work on that vision, day in and day out.
"They are the ones who see above the crowd and
around the bends in the road," Kolton says.
"Doug has demonstrated a lifetime commitment
to public service that can serve as a model for all of
us," says Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm.
"Most recently, he has shown tremendous passion
for finding new and better ways to help urban chil-
dren achieve their potential in education and in life."
"I'm a big Doug Ross fan," says former Gov. Jim
Blanchard. "Doug is one of those incredibly gifted

Doug Ross and Lolita Henderson, 16, of Detroit

Doug Ross and Malculm Ford, 15, of Detroit

people who add energy and innovation to anything
he touches.
"He's leading the most successful charter high
school in Michigan, if not the country," Blanchard
says. That's consistent with Doug's belief in service
and his constant search for new challenges.
Barbara "Bunny" Kratchman met Ross at Detroit's
Mumford High School.
'I've known Doug since I was 15 years old," says
Kratchman, who worked for his election to the state
Senate in 1978 and then with him in the Blanchard
administration.
Ross became an advocate and activist and "was
responsible for a lot of us getting involved political-
ly," says Kratchman, a Bloomfield Township resident.
She served as executive director of the Michigan
Council for the Arts, and more recently retired as
head of ArtServe Michigan.
"The [Mumford] education we got was unique,"
she said. "It was what every student should have
and Doug is bringing it full circle. He was a politi-
cian. He's back where he started — as an educator.
He's set an incredible model for other schools and
students."
State Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods, and
Events Marketing president Zina Kramer may have
done the first "job-share" when state Sen. Ross
picked the two young moms to co-run his south
Oakland County district office in 1978.

"Women were just starting to go into different
areas," says Jacobs, who now also represents that
south Oakland area. "He gave us a great opportu-
nity."
His Lansing staff was an amazing group of people,
she says, which included Lou Glazer, now head of
Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor-based think tank.
"Doug always had a knack for finding the best and
brightest kind of people."
"I view his whole career whatever the community
— city, state or nation — as working toward a better
place for people to live," says Glazer of Ann Arbor.
"This school is the latest chapter in the theme,"
Glazer says. "It's much more focused and, in many
ways, his most ambitious undertaking. It's quite
extraordinary what he has done."
"Doug has been my mentor on a really long
ride, with him doing great things," Kramer says.
The Bloomfield Township resident has worked in
a number of capacities for Ross and is now on his
University Preparatory Academy Board of Education.
"His love of education, his love of kids and his
determination to change the direction education is
moving in this country has created this marvelous
package — UPA," Kramer says.
"It's one of Doug's great gifts to give people the
self-confidence to do things they've never done
before." ❑

— Judith Doner Berne

April 3 • 2008

A17

