Snapshots
Obituaries
Obituaries are updated and archived on JNonline.us .
Eli Scherr receives
Valiant Leukemia Fighter
his recognition
plaque from Gilbert
Jacobson of the
Bill Carroll
American Friends of
Special to the Jewish News
Bar-Ilan University.
W
Scherr Honored
Bar-Ilan University's Dor L'Dor Society recently honored Eli Scherr of
Farmington Hills, a major financial contributor to the Israeli university's planned
giving effort and the first national member of the Bar-Ilan University Society.
Scherr was given a plaque and his name will be inscribed on the Ramat Gan
campus' Heritage Plaza.
The intent of the award is to recognize those who have made significant
arrangements in their estate plan for the eventual benefit of Bar-Ilan. Scherr
originated the idea of recognizing these contributors.
Remarks were made by Alan Zekelman of Bloomfield Hills, the Detroit Friends
of Bar-Ilan's outstanding president; Mark Medin, CEO and executive vice presi-
dent of American Friends of Bar-Ilan; and Gilbert Jacobson, American Friends
national director of planned giving.
Professor Chaya Brodie of Bar-Ilan's Life Sciences Department, currently on
sabbatical at the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit,
spoke of her joint venture work in directly attacking gliomas, the most common
and deadly form of brain cancer. The material she has developed in cooperation
with Henry Ford has already passed most of the animal experimentation stage;
approval of human clinical trials is expected in the next six to 12 months.
- Keri Guten Cohen, story development editor
Time Traveling
Attorney Richard Bernstein,
'-
shown with group facilitator
Shelly Newman, was guest
speaker at Time Travelers,
a support group for people
dealing with the challenges
from brain attacks (strokes)
and other neuromuscular
diseases like multiple scle-
rosis, myasthenia gravis,
closed head injuries and
traumatic brain injuries.
Bernstein was born
blind but became a prac-
ticing attorney with the
Farmington Hills firm
of Sam Bernstein and Associates. Bernstein, who advocates for the Americans
with Disabilities Act, spoke about his successful lawsuit against the University of
Michigan to make Michigan Stadium accessible to all.
Time Travelers meets 10 a.m.-noon Tuesdays at Temple Shir Shalom, 3999
Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield. This month's meetings are Dec. 9 and 16.
Contact Shelly Newman, (248) 737-0266, or sred9@sbcglobal.net .
hen Sylvia Brown's two-and-
a-half-year-old daughter,
Sandra Ann, died of leuke-
mia in 1946, she helped launch a crusade
against the disease that lasted the rest of
her life. She and her husband, Harry, cre-
ated the Children's Leukemia Foundation
of Michigan (CLF), raising funds to
fight the disease and becoming pioneers
in the field of counseling families and
patients with leukemia in Michigan.
Mrs. Brown, 90, of Farmington Hills,
died of a stroke Nov. 30, 2008. She was
the retired executive direc-
tor of CLF, continuing her
efforts against the disease
after her husband died of
cancer in 1999; they were
married for 62 years.
"My sister died within
a month after being
diagnosed;' recalled Mrs.
Brown's daughter, Abby
Pook of Farmington Hills.
"Her death gave my parents the impe-
tus to fight the disease. They wanted to
do something to help other people. My
mother really devoted the rest of her life
to the CLF; she wasn't involved in many
any other community causes or activi-
ties!"
At the time of her husband's death,
Mrs. Brown reflected on her own daugh-
ter's death: "In those days, it was very
quick. There was nothing we could do
for the children; just a few blood transfu-
sions and the child was gone. It was very
traumatic for both of us!'
Abby Pook pointed out that leukemia
today is not the certain death sentence
it was 50 years ago. With chemotherapy,
radiation and bone marrow transplants,
the outlook for patients has improved
immensely.
Mrs. Brown served as CLF executive
secretary, then executive director for
almost 30 years, while her husband
was president three different times.
The CLF office moved to several offices
in the Detroit area as it grew from the
Browns distributing canisters to store
counters to the million-dollar-budget
agency it is today, located in Southfield,
with new executives taking over the
Browns' roles.
People helped by the foundation
launched outstate Michigan chapters,
but the CLF never has been connected
with other leukemia organizations in
the United States. The Browns were
instrumental in traveling to outstate
locations to help get the other chapters
started.
Pook recalled it was not uncommon
to wake up in the morning and find the
family of a patient sleeping in the house
or having her father called to a hospital
in the middle of the night when some-
thing went wrong for a patient. He often
was at the bedside of dying leukemia
victims.
"My brother and I often visited the
homes of patients with my parents to
distribute Christmas gifts and help in
any way we could," said Pook. "We've
kept in touch with leukemia survivors
over the years. I recently
heard from a 55-year-old
man who had leukemia at
the age of 8:'
When the Browns
retired from the founda-
tion, they were honored at
a dinner where $100,000
was raised to establish the
Harry and Sylvia Brown
Endowment Fund. They
then volunteered for several years at
JARC residential homes.
Born in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Brown
moved to Michigan, but met her hus-
band while on a vacation trip to Virginia.
Harry Brown was a greeting card sales-
man and account manager for American
Greetings, visiting many drugstores in
the Detroit area.
Mrs. Brown is survived by her chil-
dren, Abby and Neal Pook of Farmington
Hills, and Barry and Christine Brown
of Warren, R.I.; grandchildren, Jessica
and Thomas McCarthy, Lesley Pook,
Robert Pook and his fiancee, Vivian Ivey;
great-grandchildren, Cait and Michael
McCarthy; brother and sisters-in-law,
Jerry and Renee Gerger, Miriam Gerger;
brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Joseph
and Geri Brown; loving nieces, nephews
and other relatives.
Mrs. Brown was the beloved wife of
the late Harry Brown; the loving mother
of the late Sandra Ann Brown; the cher-
ished sister of the late Irving Gerger and
the late Albert Gerger.
Interment was at Hebrew Memorial
Park. Contributions may be made to
the Children's Leukemia Foundation of
Michigan for the Harry and Sylvia Brown
Endowment Fund, 29777 Telegraph,
Suite 1651, Southfield, 48034, (248)
353-8222, www.leukemiamichigan.org .
Arrangements by Ira Kauman Chapel. El
Obituaries on page C32
December 4 • 2008
C31