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.

