the late Irene and the late Gerald Mellin.
Contributions may be made to
Lupus Foundation of America, 2121
K Street NW, Suite 200, Washington,
DC 20037, www.lupus.org; or Michigan
Humane Society, 30300 Telegraph
Road, Suite 220, Bingham Farms, MI
48025, secure2.convio.net/mihs/site/
Donation2?idb=1459949999&df_
id=9320&9320.donation=form1&mfc_
pref=T. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman
Chapel.

FLORENCE TCHOR
MILLER, 91, of
Farmington Hills, died
April 2, 2018.
She was a long-
time member of Adat
Shalom Synagogue;
her family were found-
Miller
ing members.
Mrs. Miller is sur-
vived by her sons and daughters-
in-law, Norman and Mary Miller of
Canton, Theodore and Sue Miller of
Belleville, Benjamin Miller of Brighton;
daughters and son-in-law, Joanne
Miller of Farmington Hills, Miriam and
Robert Shumaker of Boca Raton, Fla.;
grandchildren, David and Lori Miller,
Jeffrey and Linda Miller, Jason and
Rachel Miller, Matthew Miller, Michael
and Melissa Miller, Daniel Miller,
Alesha Miller, Samantha Shumaker
and fiancé, Sam Goldberg, Andrew
Shumaker; great-grandchildren, Owen
Miller, Aaron Miller, Emily Miller,
Grant Jankowski, Brenden Jankowski,
Zosia Jankowski, Michael Miller Jr.,
Caroline Miller, Cecilia Miller, Mason
Miller; nieces, nephews, other rela-
tives and friends.
She was the beloved wife for 58
years of the late Herbert Miller; dear
sister and sister-in-law of the late
May and the late Harold Platt, the late
Beverly and the late Sam LaFond.
Contributions may be made to Adat
Shalom Synagogue, 29901 Middlebelt
Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334;
Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy
Network, 6555 W. Maple Road, West
Bloomfield, MI 48322; Hospice of
Michigan, 989 Spaulding SE, Ada, MI
49301. Services and interment were
held at Adat Shalom Memorial Park.
Arrangements by Hebrew Memorial
Chapel.

continued on page 65

A Love Of Life, Family And Judaism

ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A

nother man might
have felt defeated,
becoming an
orphan at age 12, spend-
ing most of his child-
hood mired in the Great
Depression and nearly
succumbing to two tropi-
cal diseases while in the
Pacific during WWII.
John Harold Redfield,
Redfield
cantorial soloist for 39
years at Temple Beth El
in Detroit and Bloomfield Township,
was just not that individual. He was
also a successful businessman, a late-
in-life published author and an essen-
tial part of his happy family.
“It’s hard to imagine how all these
events may have shaped him, but we
do know that John became a serious,
refined, intellectually and culturally
aware gentleman,” eulogized Rabbi
Mark Miller at the service for Mr.
Redfield, 94, of Bloomfield Hills. The
cantor emeritus died on March 27,
2018.
Co-officiants were Rabbi Megan
Brudney and Cantor Rachel Gottlieb
Kalmowitz. The venue was Temple
Beth El, which the Redfield family has
been associated with since the 1800s.
The only son of Myra and Harold,
an engineer, John Redfield was born
in Detroit in 1924. As a young boy, he
studied piano and violin.
When he was 2, his parents
divorced. Then his mother died of mul-
tiple sclerosis when he was 9 and John
subsequently gained a stepmother and
three half-brothers. He was 12 when
his father died in a car crash.
“When Dad became confirmed at
Beth El, he said it was the saddest
day of his life because he had no par-
ents,” John Redfield Jr. said.
A graduate of Royal Oak Dondero
High School, Mr. Redfield joined the
Army after his first year at University
of Michigan. He studied telecom-
munications and microwaves at
the University of Chicago, useful for
gathering intelligence at his post in
Guam. There he was stricken with
Dengue fever and malaria.
Although Mr. Redfield grew up
with religion, Miller suggested that
“perhaps because of what he endured
and all those things that happened
to him, it was during those years of
the war that John built himself into
a much deeper person connected to
Judaism.”

Home again, Mr. Redfield
had his fateful meeting with
“the dish from Toledo” — his
future wife, Arlene Davis.
They met on a blind double-
date although he was fixed
up with the other girl. The
devoted Redfields wed in
July 1948.
Miller said, “John was
never quite the same after
losing her” on Jan. 26, 2014.
While Mr. Redfield
excelled in engineering at U-M, he
devoted much time and energy to
his passion for music. After gradua-
tion, when Temple Beth El needed a
soloist, its longtime musical director,
Jason Tickton, somehow found Mr.
Redfield.
“The soloist eagerly perfected his
Hebrew, studied Torah with the rab-
bis, studied the specific intonations
and liturgical features and imbibed
enough music to take on the canto-
rial role at temple,” Miller said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Redfield worked for
Allen Industries and then Acme Mills,
rising to president of its subsidiary,
Great Lakes Filters.
Singing at weddings and funerals,
on Shabbat and for all other holidays
is where Mr. Redfield “found his joy
and built the relationships that made
our community what it was,” Miller
said.
Mr. Redfield was struck by a virus
in his early 60s that affected his
vocal chords. He lost his ability to
sing in the way he demanded of him-
self. Retiring himself as cantor, he
remained a beloved member of the
Beth El community.
Outside work, Mr. Redfield played
golf and tennis. Vice president of
SCORE, an organization for retired
executives, he mentored young
entrepreneurs. He volunteered with
Federation’s Annual Campaign and
co-chaired Kadima fundraising
events with his wife.
Jane Redfield Schwartz said her
dad “was also an amazing photogra-
pher, who set up his own darkroom
to develop pictures.”
She recalled her father singing
arias while she accompanied him on
the piano. Neighbors told her they
fell asleep to his singing on hot sum-
mer nights when the windows were
opened.
When it came to his grandchildren,
Mr. Redfield “loved to teach us new

things — whether it was how to eat
an ice cream cone and or how to
build a birdhouse,” said grandson
Brian Schwartz. He even taught the
young kids “the art of shaving.”
An avid reader, Mr. Redfield was
well-versed in subjects that included
engineering, music, philosophy, eco-
nomics and Judaism. Always the per-
fectionist, it took 17 years for him to
finish his book, The Genius of Moses.
It was published in 2013, when he
was 87.
Temple Kol Ami Rabbi Norman
Roman, a friend who worked four
years with Mr. Redfield, recalled how
“John researched and analyzed and
conceptualized and argued with the
biblical character” of Moses.
Mr. Redfield had brain surgery
eight years ago, never regaining his
full speech. It meant a lot to his
daughter when the Beth El archives
found a recording of him singing.
As pallbearers escorted the cas-
ket, mourners were treated to Mr.
Redfield’s beautiful singing of Mi
Chamochah from Rabbi Richard
Hertz’s retirement service in 1982.
“John had spirit and charm and
wisdom that he shared with all of us
here today,” Miller said. “He was a
quiet but outstanding man.”
Mr. Redfield was the beloved hus-
band for 66 years of the late Arlene
Redfield; cherished father of John
(Pam) Redfield Jr., Jane (Dr. Richard)
Schwartz, and Robert Redfield;
and loving Papa of Alison Redfield
( fiance, Adam Solomon), Rebecca
Redfield, Brian ( Jenny) Schwartz,
and Jessica (Ethan) Weisman. He is
also survived by his loving caregivers,
Ronda Robinson, Darryl Fuller, Larry
Dailey, Barbara Pierce, Robert Pierce
and Precious Pierce.
John’s half-brothers were William
Redfield, the late Michael Redfield
and the late Dr. Nicholas Redfield.
Contributions are suggested to
Kadima, John and Arlene Redfield
Fund, 15999 W. 12 Mile Road,
Southfield, MI 48076, (248) 559-8235,
kadimacenter.org; or Temple Beth El,
John and Arlene Redfield Memorial
Fund, 7400 Telegraph, Bloomfield
Hills, MI 48301, (248) 851-1100,
tbeonline.org.
Interment took place at Beth
El Memorial Park in Livonia.
Arrangements by Ira Kaufman
Chapel. •

jn

April 12 • 2018

63