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