22 | JUNE 1 • 2023

F

or Milton Simmons, M.D., there’s
no greater gift than something that
keeps giving.
That’s a big reason behind his donation
of funds used to purchase four ambulances
and a medical motorcycle for Magen
David Adom (MDA), Israel’s emergency
response organization. The MDA is a non-
governmental organization and receives no
government support.
Simmons, 93, of Southfield, is a retired
OB/GYN who says he delivered more than
2,000 babies during his tenure at South
Macomb Hospital in Warren (now part of
the Ascension system).
He and his late wife, Edith, donated the
first ambulance in 2018 in memory of
their daughter, Bonnie Sherr, M.D., who
had died of sarcoma the previous year at
age 50. She was a family practitioner who
had practiced with her father for more

than 20 years.
“It’s a living gift that keeps on giving,
physically and spiritually,” said Simmons,
a longtime member of Temple Beth El in
Bloomfield Township. “This type of gift
states, ‘I don’t know who you are; I will
never know, but I am there for you in your
time of need.’”
Of the loved ones memorialized by the
ambulances, Simmons says, “I can’t take
them out of the grave, and their soul goes
to God, but their spirit I can do something
with.”
He says his daughter’s spirit “is again
practicing medicine, and her medical
license is now issued by God. It will never
expire.”
En route to Israel in 2018, the GM-built
first ambulance stopped at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, where American Friends
of Magen David Adom held a dedication

ceremony for the Simmons’ family and
friends.
After Edith Simmons, a former
kindergarten teacher, died in 2020,
Simmons donated another ambulance in
her memory.
The third ambulance donation honors
two late uncles who inspired Simmons to
become a physician, Milton H. Simmons,
a prominent Columbus businessman, and
Harry M. Kirschbaum, M.D,, a Detroit-
area OB/GYN.
The fourth ambulance was donated
last year in memory of Michael David
Kleiman, M.D., son of Simmons’ close
friend Estelle Kleiman, who was killed
in a 1986 car accident at the age of 27.
He was an anesthesiologist about to start
specialized training.
Three of the ambulances are “mobile
intensive care units,” dispatched in
the most urgent and life-threatening
situations. They carry advanced equipment
and sophisticated technology and have
raised roofs so personnel can perform
life-saving interventions in the unit.
The fourth is a four-wheel drive vehicle
designed to maneuver in the most rugged
terrain — dunes, desert, seashore and
mountainous areas.
The name of the person memorialized
and the name of the donor is painted on
the door of each ambulance.
Simmons’ most recent donation, a
medical motorcycle, was made in memory
of Estelle Kleiman’s grandson, Max Louis
Walter, who died seven years ago at age
26. These “medicycles” are used to enable
first responders to maneuver easily in

A ‘Gift That
Keeps on Giving’

OUR COMMUNITY

Physician memorializes loved ones
with life-saving ambulances.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The plaque Dr. Simmons received.

BARBARA LEWIS

Estelle Kleiman
and Milton
Simmons, M.D.