Metro

DETROIT JEWRY'S HIGHEST HONOR

Edward Charles Levy Jr.

Born: Detroit, Nov.14,1931

Parents: Edward C. Levy and Pauline
Birndorf Levy

Wife: Julie Ruth Honigman, married
46 years, died 2001; Linda Dresner,
married in 2005

Daughters: Ellen and Carol; and
Barbie who died in 1985

Education: Detroit Public Schools,
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology

Employed: Edw. C. Levy Co.,
Dearborn, president and CEO

Board memberships: AIPAC,
Karmanos Cancer Institute/Detroit,
Michigan Rountable for Diversity
and Inclusion, Center for Strategic
Studies/Tel-Aviv University,
Children's Hospital of Michigan,
Washington Institute for Near East
Policy, Citizens Research Council of
Michigan, Mackinac Center for Public
Policy, National Slag Association

Hard work and passion for Israel fuel Butzel Award winner Ed Levy Jr.

Harry Kirsbaum

Special to the Jewish News

E

d Levy Jr.'s character can be
summed up in two stories that
took place when he was 8.
He told his father he wanted a car.
"You're just a little fellow; there's not
a whole lot you can do:' his father said.
"But you can sweep peoples leaves, shovel
their snow, help clean out their garage
and, instead of spending that money,
your mother will start a savings account
at the bank and you can save it."
Within two years, he was working two
newspaper routes, but kept asking to
work for his dad, who owned the Edw. C.
Levy Co., a construction materials corn-
pany that used slag from steel plants to
manufacture road base materials.
Finally, at 12 years old, he got his wish
— a summer job working six days a
week for a dollar a day. It was half what
he was earning on his routes, but with
much more opportunity for advance-
ment.
On his 16th birthday, Ed Jr. wrote a
$1,650 check to buy a brand new 1949
Ford. "Proudest day of my life he said.
As a child, Ed Levy Jr. was diagnosed
with a mild form of petit mal epilepsy
that was eventually corrected through

18

September 23 * 2010

diet. He was at a summer day camp and
didn't want to play sports with the other
kids because he felt awkward. He was sit-
ting in the large crafts building at camp
when the teacher asked him what he
wanted to do for a project.
"Why don't I build a model of Tel
Aviv?" he said. Using a map, he took
stones and white wash and mapped the
entire city on the ground. "All this came
to me naturally, and I can't even remem-
ber how," he said.
Respect for hard, honest work and a
love for Israel is what drives Ed Levy Jr.
These passions are among the reasons
why the 78-year-old "mentsh" was hon-
ored as this year's recipient of Detroit
Jewry's highest communal award, the
Fred M. Butzel Memorial Award, before
nearly 400 community members at the
Sept. 15 combined Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit/United Jewish
Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit
annual meeting at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.
"I have an aversion to anyone paying
any personal attention to me he said
from the kitchen table of the modern art-
filled Birmingham home he shares with
his wife, Linda Dresner.
"He's a mentsh," said Scott Kaufman,
Federation CEO. "Ed has made a tremen-

dous impact on the Jewish people, Israel
advocacy and AIPAC [American Israel
Public Affairs Committee]; and he's also
influenced a generation of young people
in our community to get involved."

Early Background
Hard work is in his blood.
Ed Levy's grandfather Sam Levy
escaped the Cossacks in Belarus and
stayed with relatives in Traverse City
before putting a stake on a farm near
Rochester in the 1890s.
Sam had been a peasant farmer in
Russia. Now he grew sugar beets. Sam
became the village blacksmith, then the
village teamster hauling produce to Royal
Oak and surrounding areas.
Sam's youngest son, who hated school
and wasn't very religious, was Ed's father.
"He was in the fourth grade for four
years before they threw him out:' Ed said,
smiling.
When he grew up, Ed Sr. moved to
Detroit and started to collect alley rub-
bish with a horse and wagon. Eventually,
he bought a dump truck and started to
haul rubbish, then foundry waste. He
approached Henry Ford, whom he had
met years earlier, and offered to remove
slag from the foundries with his trucks
and use the slag to fill in swampland that

would eventually become the foundation
for the Rouge River plant.
Ed Sr. grew the business, became a
success and passed his principles of hard
work, the free enterprise system and a
love for Israel on to his son.
Ed Jr. stopped getting an allowance
at age 13, but has never had a problem
making money. He even paid his way
through school at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
"By the time I was going to college, I
was already running a little operation
making money for the company:' he said.
After graduating in 1952, he joined the
Edw. C. Levy Co.; he became president
and CEO in 1969.

Israel And AIPAC
Ed Jr. grew up in a family that wasn't reli-
gious, but cared very much about what
happened to Jews. In 1949, his father was
called to a meeting of local Jewish lead-
ers, including Bill Davidson. They wanted
to do something for the new State of
Israel besides write checks.
With his background, Ed Sr. was the
only one there who had any experience in
construction projects larger than homes.
With the community leaders' invest-
ment , the group built a quarry and
crushing plant near Ben-Gurion airport,