22 | JULY 14 • 2022 

LARRY JACKIER

When asked for his favorite memory from 
his time at Mumford High School, Larry 
Jackier has many. “I was on the Mumford 
tennis team. I was a captain. We won the 
All-City Championship both years, so that 
was great fun. And then I also had the 
privilege of being the sports editor of the 
Mumford Mercury, our newspaper.”
He also has fond memories of belonging 
to the Monarchs Club. The Monarchs 
were a social club that met at the Jewish 
Community Center. “We stuck together all 
the way through high school and even till 
today in a number of cases,” he said
After Mumford, Larry headed to 
U-M Ann Arbor and then to Yale for 
law school, one of only two U-M students accepted that 
year. After graduating, he was a clerk for a federal judge in 
Delaware. “Then I had the great privilege of coming back to 
Detroit and practicing law with my father for about 19 years 
till he passed away — a wonderful part of my legal career.”
Larry’s parents were originally from the East Coast and had 
no family in Detroit when they settled here. “The Federation 
became family to them,” Larry said. “The Jewish community 
became our family.”
Being their first born, Larry followed in their footsteps. 
“Stanley Frankel took me under his wing in many ways. He 
got me involved in the junior division of Federation. And 
then one thing, you know, leads to another.”
Over the years, Larry’s positions within the Jewish 
community are almost too numerous to list. He is a past-
president of the Federation and earned the Butzel Award, its 
highest honor, in 2008.
A deep, abiding love for Israel sprang from his involvement 
with the Federation. He’s been to Israel 127 times, including 
all five Miracle Missions in the 1990s. And he’s long been 

involved with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 
numerous positions, including president of the ATS National 
Board and chairman of the Technion Board of Governors. 
He’s married to Eleanor. Their blended family includes 
seven children, 21 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. 

GENE ZAMLER

Gene Zamler attended Mumford, then 
Michigan State University. He completed 
his studies at the Detroit College of Law in 
1967.
“I had just graduated law school and 
was looking for a job,” he said. “I was 
having a cup of coffee in the Guardian 
Building in Downtown Detroit when a 
friend of mine from Mumford, Richard 
Bockoff, an attorney who worked for a law 
firm in the building, walked in and said, 
‘Come on up. I’ll give you a job.’
“A year later, Richard and I went 
out on our own as partners, and we 
developed our law firm into one of the 
largest workers compensation practices 
in the United States. We brought in fellow Mumford alumni 
Mark Mellen and Donald Shiffman and created a lifelong 
partnership in real estate and law.”
Gene lives in West Bloomfield with his wife, Carol Borin 
Zamler. They have four children and nine grandchildren.
“I still practice a little bit of law,” he said, “but mostly I 
build and develop industrial buildings and manufacturing 
plants all over Michigan with my two sons and two sons-in-
law. 
“I’m still very active, and I love being involved,” Gene said. 
“I’m in good health, thank God, and I enjoy the challenge. 
“Mumford was unique, full of fond memories and beautiful 
relationships. Everywhere I travel, I bump into people from 
Mumford. It was just a wonderful place to be and go to 
school.” 

Jackie Headapohl, David Sachs, Nathan Vicar, Danny Schwartz, Mike Smith 

and Rachel Sweet all contributed to this story.

OUR COMMUNITY

continued from page 20

Merrily Rubin Tann 
and Marty Laker

Eleanor Gerbs 
Aronovitz and 
Carol Owens 
Rosenberg at 
an earlier reunion

