Obituaries

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Papa Nate's Legacy

Esther Aliweiss ingber
I Special to the Jewish News

T

he legacy of Nathan Fink is
the close-knit family he leaves
behind — "the harvest of a life-
time," pronounced Rabbi Harold Loss
at the funeral service for his Temple
Israel congregant. Mr. Fink, 92, a resi-
dent of Bloomfield Hills and Boynton
Beach, Fla., courageously fought renal
disease for seven years before his death
on Sept. 18, 2010.
Beyond the challenges of raising
their own three children, Mr. Fink
and his wife, Shirley, also guided his
seven fatherless nieces and nephews to
adulthood. The children and teens lost
their dads — Leonard, Jack and Sam
Fink — to heart attacks during the late
1960s or early '70s.
The brothers were partners in the
Great Scott! supermarket chain, which
Mr. Fink strived to keep going while
reaching out to their devastated fami-
lies.
Morris Fink appreciated his uncle's
loyalty, writing in a letter read at the
funeral: "Nothing exemplifies his great-
ness more than how under the most
difficult of circumstances he took on
the responsibilities of an extended
family, a very large extended family."
"Our cousins became like siblings,"
said David Fink, a son of Nate and
Shirley.
Mr. Fink's role model was his father,
Morris, who emigrated from Poland
around 1907-08. His wife, Leah, joined

him five years later in
Detroit with their daughter
Dorothy. They went on to
have Sara, then four sons.
In his eulogy, oldest
grandson. Zachary Fink
said his "Papa Nate" took
it to heart when his father
told him to take care of
Nathan Fink
his siblings and stay close.
"No one else is capable of
doing it," he told Nate, giving the same
message to each child.
Eulogist Rabbi Lane Steinger, who is
married to Mr. Fink's daughter Linda,
noted his father-in-law was "sickly in
his infancy ... but grew into a dashing
young man." Mr. Fink graduated from
Detroit's Northern High School and
attended Walsh College. In his teenage
years, he became a businessman.
"The pinnacle of his success was
with Great Scott!" Steinger said. Sam
Fink founded the business in 1951,
bringing in his brothers. The 33 stores
were sold to Allied Supermarkets in
1976; Kroger bought the chain in 1990.
Mr. Fink was a voracious reader who
also enjoyed golf, card games and shar-
ing good jokes. Steinger said, "He was a
person with strong opinions, who was
direct and candid and sometimes even
gruff and blunt."
By contrast, Zachary said the grand-
children remembered his genial side:
talking in a Donald Duck voice, pulling
quarters from behind their ears, pass-
ing out ice cream treats and spotting a
crisp $20 bill for a teenager's gas tank.

Classical music was
a lifelong passion for
Mr. Fink, who sup-
ported two grandchil-
dren through New York's
Juilliard School of Music.
Grandson Rafi Steinger
played "Clair de Lune"
at the service. Mr. Fink
always beamed "when
Shirley would sit down and
play the piano — or really, at what-
ever you set your hands to do," Rabbi
Steinger told her.
Zachary said his grandparents' 65
years of marital bliss inspire family
members. "Grandma Shirley told me,
`The bells started ringing the moment I
met him and have never stopped since?"
Shirley Fink, Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield's first woman president,
shared her husband's dedication to the
extended family throughout the years.
In his letter, nephew Morris cited their
willingness to "help us, not only when
we asked for it, but even when we were
too blind or troubled to realize we
needed it." •

Duty To Family
Zachary spent time with Mr. Fink during
his fmal days. "At one point ... his grip
tightened on me. He pulled me near so
I could hear him: 'Remember," he said,
`stay close, stay close: Papa Nate's great-
est legacy — the single most important
gift that he's given to each of us — is the
understanding that above everything else,
it is our duty to put family first; we need

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to watch out for each other.
"Though we are spread around the
country, each of the grandchildren know
it's our responsibility to stay close."
Nathan Fink is survived by his
beloved wife, Shirley Lachman Fink;
cherished children, Melvin Fink,
David Fink and Linda and Rabbi Lane
Steinger; loving grandchildren, Shira
and Michael Kahan, Zachary Fink and
fiance Alyssa Fedele, Daina and Andrew
Borteck, Ellery Fink, Rafi Steinger,
Lauren Davies, Jessica Fink and Noah
Davies; great-grandchildren, Ethan
and Marisa Borteck, Naomi and Leora
Kahan; nieces and nephews, Barbara
and Herb Zimmerman, Lynn and James
Newman, Morris and Nancy Fink,
Debbie Silver, Robert Fink, Michael and
Beth Fink, Nancy and Lance Kinsey,
Susan and Michael Solarz, Lorrie and
Jeff Trauben, Gary and Sherri Morof;
sister-in-law, Joyce Morof.
He was the last surviving sibling of
the late Dorothy and the late Ralph
Hertzberg, the late Sara and the late
Ed Edwards, the late Jack Fink, the late
Sam and the late Anne Fink, the late
Leonard and the late Kay Fink; broth-
er-in-law of the late Jack Morof and the
late Sheldon Lachman; uncle of the late
Joseph Silver and the late Warren Fink.
Interment was at Beth El Memorial
Park. Contributions may be directed to
Temple Israel, 5725 Walnut Lake Road,
West Bloomfield MI 48323, (248) 661-
5700, www.temple-israel.org or to a
charity of one's choice. Arrangements
by Ira Kaufman Chapel. 11

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