OBITUARIES
OF BLESSED MEMORY

R

eliable volunteer, 
conscientious board 
member and former 
judge, Deborah “Debbie” Tyner 
was not one to sit back. Instead, 
she brought formidable gifts of 
time, intellect and philanthropy 
to improve both the Jewish and 
general communities in Metro 
Detroit. She also protected and 
cared for her loving family.
Sidelined in recent years with 
the debilitating disease enceph-
alitis, former Oakland County 
Circuit Judge Tyner, 66, of 
Franklin, died peacefully in her 
sleep on Sept. 7, 2022. Temple 
Israel of West Bloomfield 
Rabbis Paul Yedwab and Harold 
Loss, and Cantor Neil Michaels 
officiated at their former board 
member’s funeral service.
Born in Detroit on June 28, 
1956, to Suzanne and Herbie 
Tyner, Deborah moved with her 
family to Birmingham when 
she was 2. Known to boss her 
sisters around, she was also 
their biggest defender. 
Deborah was “strong and 
tough on the outside but inside 
she was sentimental,
” Loss said. 
She organized her family’s mile-
stone events and “never forgot a 
birthday or anniversary — and 
this was an incredibly busy 
person.
” Deborah “was a rock” 
through her father’s serious 
illness.
Trailblazing Oakland County 
Circuit Judge Alice Gilbert 
spoke to Deborah’s class 
at Covington Junior High, 
inspiring the ninth-grader to 
proclaim, “I’m going to be a 
judge someday.
” Sixteen years 
later, her dream became a real-
ity. First, Deborah graduated 
from Birmingham’s Seaholm 
High School and University of 
Michigan in Ann Arbor, major-
ing in history and obtaining a 

teaching certificate. 
Next came Wayne 
State University 
Law School, pass-
ing the Michigan 
bar exam and 
working as an 
attorney. 
Former Judge 
Edward Sosnick, 
Deborah’s col-
league on the 
Oakland County 
Circuit Court, first 
met her through 
family connec-
tions. Telling him 
she intended to run for judge, 
Sosnick suggested it was a lit-
tle late at that point to collect 
enough petition signatures to 
be placed on the ballot. But 
she surprised him. Her family 
and friends worked tirelessly to 
collect signatures. They cam-
paigned and raised funds for 
her. Deborah was elected judge 
on the slogan: “Tough Justice.
” 
Handling both civil and 
criminal cases, “this was a 
woman who loved to work; she 
was smart and she was fair,
” 
Loss said. Attorneys knew they 
needed to come prepared to her 
courtroom. Retired Oakland 
Circuit Judge Barry Howard 
called his former colleague “a 
great team player. She was pop-
ular with the other judges.
”
Leaving in 2006 after 16 years 
on the bench gave Deborah 
an opportunity “to see and 
do different things in her life,
” 
said attorney Richard “Rick” 
Herman, her “surviving best 
friend” husband.
Trained to lead tours of 
Zekelman Holocaust Center 
in Farmington Hills, Deborah 
wrote in her July 2020 essay, 
“Why I Am a Docent,
” that she 
was grateful to “assist others 
in understanding this evil, but 

complex period of 
history, and per-
haps help prevent 
similar situations 
from ever occur-
ring again.
” 
Deborah was 
a board member 
of Beaumont 
Foundation in 
Royal Oak, Jewish 
Federation of 
Metropolitan 
Detroit and its 
United Jewish 
Foundation 
Executive 
Committee in Bloomfield 
Township and advisory com-
mittee of Gesher Human 
Services in Southfield.
Observing her on the Temple 
Israel board, Loss said Deborah 
“offered cogent answers to com-
plex problems and others fol-
lowed. She was never uncom-
fortable taking a position that 
others hadn’t thought of.
”
Loss described Deborah 
and Rick as “partners in an 
engaging relationship based 
on love, appreciation and 
respect.
” Rick’s friend set him 
up with Deborah, a young 
widow. Married since Dec. 10, 
1983, Rick said, “I had a good 
life with her.
” They traveled, 
enjoyed winter and Up North 
homes and raised their chil-
dren, Jacqueline and Brandon. 
After Deborah contracted what 
doctors call a “one-in-a-million” 
disease, the couple adopted a 
simpler lifestyle. Rick provided 
her with constant, devoted care. 
In his eulogy, Yedwab 
referred to that week’s Torah 
portion, Ki Teitzei (“When you 
go out to war”) Deuteronomy 
2:10-25:19, and said that in such 
a situation, “the person I would 
want in my foxhole is Debbie 
Tyner. She was brilliant, dedi-

cated, insightful and fierce.
” He 
attributed the strength, determi-
nation and passion of his dear 
friend to possessing “the biggest 
heart and the most caring soul I 
have ever encountered.
”
“She was Mom,
” Brandon 
Herman said, “but she was real-
ly my role model and my best 
friend. She offered support with 
love.
”
Deborah Tyner was the 
beloved wife of Richard 
Herman and the late Scott 
Raderman; mother of 
Jacqueline (Matt) Herman and 
Brandon (Meghan) Herman; 
and grandmother of Herschel, 
Xander, Michael and Damian. 
She was the daughter of 
Suzanne Tyner (Jack Schwartz) 
and the late Herbert Tyner, and 
is also survived by her siblings 
and spouses, Cynthia (Nelson) 
Dobbins, Karen (Douglas) 
Rouff and David (Gael) Tyner; 
mother-in-law and father-
in-law, Arlene and Morton 
Herman; brothers-in-law and 
sisters-in-law, Ron (Sharon) 
Herman, Jim (Brenda) Herman, 
Gregg (Cathy) Herman and 
Michael Herman; nieces, neph-
ews, cousins, colleagues and a 
world of friends. 
Interment was at Clover 
Hill Park Cemetery. 
Contributions may be made to 
Zekelman Holocaust Center, 
28123 Orchard Lake Road, 
Farmington Hills, MI 48334, 
(248) 553-2400, holocaust-
center.org; Temple Israel, 
5725 Walnut Lake Road, West 
Bloomfield, MI 48323, (248) 
661-5700, temple-israel.org/
tributes; Beaumont Foundation, 
3711 W
. 13 Mile Road, Royal 
Oak, MI 48073, (248) 551-5330, 
foundation.beaumont.org, or 
to a charity of one’s choice. 
Arrangements by Ira Kaufman 
Chapel. 

Former Judge, Community Activist

ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Judge Deborah Tyner

104 | SEPTEMBER 22 • 2022 

