92 | MARCH 30 • 2023 

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OBITUARIES
OF BLESSED MEMORY

Following a short detour 
to Shreveport, La., Jack 
and Sharon moved back to 
Michigan, where they stayed 
for the remainder of his 
career.
Sharon died in 1989, soon 
after they made a retirement 
move to be closer to Jack’s 
brother Hank, and his wife 
Judy, in Scottsdale, Ariz. 
Following Hank’s death, 
Jack moved to San Diego to 
be closer to Leslye and her 
family.
Jack was known for his 
sense of humor, which he 
kept until the end of his life, 
his fast driving, his incessant 
craving for chocolate and his 
love of family.

He is mourned by his 
daughter, Leslye (Scott) 
Lyons; grandchildren, Kevin 
(Nichole) and Russell Lyons; 
and numerous nieces and 
nephews.
Interment was at 
Beth El Memorial Park. 
Contributions may be made 
to Words Alive, 5111 Santa 
Fe St., Suite 219, San Diego, 
CA 92109, wordsalive.org/
donate; Congregation Beth 
Israel San Diego; Cindy 
Polger’s College Crew, 9001 
Towne Centre Drive, San 
Diego, CA 02122, cbisd.
shulcloud.com/payment.
php; or to a charity of one’s 
choice. Arrangements by Ira 
Kaufman Chapel.

Manhattan Project 
Scientist Died

Abraham Zarem, one of the 
last surviving Manhattan 
Project scientists, died at 
age 106.
He was 28 
when he joined 
the Manhattan 
Project, the vast 
U.S. government 
effort to develop 
the atom bomb.
Engineers like 
him gathered in 
secret laboratories 
in New Mexico, California, 
New York City and else-
where to provide the practi-
cal know-how the theorists 
lacked. 
“‘They were geniuses but 
didn’t know how to build 
a f—king thing,’” Zarem 

recalled, according to his 
longtime rabbi at Sinai 
Temple in Los Angeles, 
David Wolpe. 
Zarem, who 
went on to a dis-
tinguished career 
in technology, 
business develop-
ment and leader-
ship management 
training, died 
March 8 in Los 
Angeles. He was 
106, and one of the last sur-
viving members of the army 
of scientists, technicians, 
bureaucrats and clerks who 
helped build the weapon that 
would force Japan’s surrender 
in World War II and usher in 
the Atomic Age. 

JTA