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Alfred Martin Gertler, in San Francisco, on August 22, 2010 at age 87.

Beloved husband of the late Claire Olivia Gertler for 53 years; loving father of Richard, Jonathan and Eric Gertler; adoring grandfather of Alexander, Arielle and Holden; dear brother of William Gertler, sisters-in-law Marilyn Luebeck, Evelyn Herman and Dolores Gertler, and dear friend of Roslyn Goldstein, Iris Berman and Steve Reese.

Mr. Gertler, born in Brooklyn in 1922, enlisted in the Army Air Force just weeks prior to the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. He served as a B-17 navigator with the Eighth Air Force based in England, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Mr. Gertler attended the University of Illinois on the GI Bill, where he met his future wife, Claire Gruenberg. As Editor of the Daily Illini, he worked with Gene Shalit, longtime film critic for NBC’s “Today Show,” and Hugh Hefner, who later gained fame as publisher of “Playboy” magazine.

Mr. Gertler enjoyed a distinguished 32-year career in public relations, beginning in a small firm of three professionals and culminating as President and Chief Operating Officer of Harshe Rotman, and Druck, then the Nation’s fifth largest independent public relations agency.

Mr. Gertler was active in the Jewish community, including the United Jewish Appeal, and was a founding member and Vice President of Congregation B’Nai Torah, in Highland Park, Illinois, where he and Mrs. Gertler moved to a house he designed and built in 1953, and where they resided and raised a family for more than 30 years.

Mr. Gertler moved to San Francisco with his wife in 1987, where they became active in the University of California’s Center for Learning in Retirement. He remained devoted to CLIR for the rest of his life, serving on the Building and Curriculum Committees, and attending classes faithfully.

An informal celebration of Mr. Gertler’s life will be held at the home of Roslyn Goldstein, 1890 Broadway Street, Apt. 206, San Francisco, on Saturday, September 25, 2010, at 4 p.m.

Linda Seltzer Popofsky. Peacefully passed away on September 9, 2010, after a battle with cancer.

Linda was born August 4, 1940, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She led a distinguished life in academia and higher education. Following graduation from Brookline High, she attended Wellesley College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa while obtaining a B.A. with Special Honors in History. She then obtained a Masters in British History (in 1964) and ultimately a Doctorate in Early Modern British and European History (in 1970) from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1962, while attending Wellesley, she married M. Laurence Popofsky, then at Harvard Law School. The two settled in San Francisco where Larry practiced law at Heller Ehrman (and now Orrick) and Linda began a career in academia.

She taught British and European History at San Francisco State University from 1970 to 1975, and then served as an Associate Professor of European History at Mills College from 1975 to 1989. Professor Popofsky published numerous articles on British legal history and served as Director of the Trustee Scholar Program. In the 1990s, she served as Director of the Scholarships Office of the University of California at Berkeley. Linda served as a Member of the Board of Directors of numerous organizations, including of Temple Emanu-El, Jewish Vocational Services, the Friends of California History, and the Holocaust Center of Northern California.

She is survived by her husband Larry, her sister Judith Inker (of Wellesley Hills, MA), son Mark Popofsky (of Washington, D.C.), daughter Kaye Popofsky Kramer (of Los Angeles, CA), her four grandchildren Madeleine Popofsky, Maxime Kramer, Jules Kramer, and Oscar Kramer.

Dr. Ernest Harold Rosenbaum, M.D., passed on peacefully on September 7, 2010.

Dr. Rosenbaum was a well-known medical oncologist and hematologist living in San Francisco. He also was Clinical Professor of Medicine, Emeritus at UCSF, and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Though he retired in 2006 after 50 years of medical practice (mostly in association with Mount Zion Hospital and UCSF), he continued writing and working on programs to benefit cancer patients, survivors and families until his death.

Dr. Rosenbaum was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1943 moved with his family to Albuquerque, New Mexico. He attended prep school on the Stanford campus (Interdale, now Menlo) and later graduated from the Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania in 1947. After attending the University of New Mexico, he attended the University of Colorado Medical School where he received his Medical degree in 1956. From 1956-1957 he interned at the San Francisco General Hospital, Stanford Service, and completed his residency at the San Francisco General Hospital, Stanford Service, and Mount Zion Hospital. He additionally trained in hematology and oncology at Tufts New England Hospital Medical Center in Boston and spent a year at MIT with an NIH postdoctoral fellowship. He returned to San Francisco in 1963 and joined John J. Sampson in clinical practice where he specialized in hematology and oncology.

Dr. Rosenbaum was especially proud of his service as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps from 1959 to 1961. Stationed in Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, Texas, he served as the General Medical Officer for the U.S. Air Force Polio Center, an Allergy Center servicing 11 states. In the Air Force, he was flown to different states treating patients in military hospitals and clinics.

In 1948, he met Isadora Feldstein, and they were engaged within three weeks and married 11 months later. They celebrated 60th anniversary of their life together as life partners, colleagues, parents and best friends several months before the passing of Isadora. Together they attended college at UNM where Isadora majored in Piano while Ernest majored in Pre-Medicine. Through their life they shared a life long passion for music (especially Opera) and art. In addition, they loved to travel reaching every continent around the world and visiting their children and grandchildren.

Dr. Rosenbaum’s achievements are many. As a pioneer in providing guidance and supportive information for cancer patients and their families, he authored over 25 books and over 100 articles and presentations. His major accomplishments include the publication of Everyone’s Guide to Cancer Therapy (2000, 5th edition), Everyone’s Guide to Supportive Care (2005) and Everyone’s Guide to Cancer Survivorship (2007). While at Mount Zion he was responsible for forming the Medical Oncology Service, assisted in developing the first genetic counseling service and Art for Recovery program. He helped develop the first hospice in San Francisco with the Regional Cancer Foundation where he was medical director in 1968 and the Cancer Supportive Program at Stanford in 1998. He participated in many research projects in basic science, immunology, melanoma and breast cancer, as well as supportive care, home care, and rehabilitation programs for cancer patients.

Together with Isadora, they developed home care programs with two books and a video training program. He published 25 books on cancer care, supportive care, and survivorship and cancer therapy. His many awards include the first Endowed Chair in Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Dean’s Medal at Stanford for his development of the Cancer Supportive Care Program at the Stanford Cancer Center. He lectured in many countries helping develop a Home Care Program in, Italy, Israel and Nepal. Combining his love of opera and medicine, he served as the medical adviser and physician for the San Francisco Opera for over 40 years.

Dr. Rosenbaum believed that his legacy was in “how we care for the sick and dying, often going far beyond the accepted standard of care to check on their wellbeing”. Together with Isadora, he tirelessly worked to raise the quality of patient care and awareness for people living with cancer and their families.

He was a loving and devoted father to his children Eileen and Josef Marom, Alexandra and Richard von Ehrenkrook, Diane and Richard Shapiro, and Steven and Kate Davis-Rosenbaum. He loved and followed the adventures of his six grandchildren, Rachel and Daniel Marom, Stephanie Shapiro, Miriam Davis-Rosenbaum, Leah and Erik von Ehrenkrook. He is survived by his brothers Jacob and Margie, Arthur and Rona, and his sister Lillian Snyder and Mary Alice Morris.

Services were held at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. Interment at Eternal Home Cemetery in Colma.

Donations in his memory may be sent to: Rosenbaum-Cancer Supportive Care Fund at Stanford, c/o: The Cancer Survivorship Program in Integrative Medicine, Rebecca A. Shreve Administrative Services Manager, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences School of Medicine, Stanford University, 401 Quarry Road, #3211, Stanford CA. 94305-5717, or The Ernest H. Rosenbaum Cancer Endowed Chair at UCSF, P.O. Box 45339, San Francisco, CA 94145-0339 or to The San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Opera Association, 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102; or simply do a random act of kindness for someone in need.

 

At rest in Berkeley, after a 10-year battle with cancer, Laurence Chaim Singer’s will to survive was fashioned by his life saga.

In 1939, parents, Rachel and Aahron, fled East from Lodz, Poland ahead of the Nazi invasion, into USSR. They were sent by the Russians to work in Arkhangel’sk, midway between Leningrad and Murmansk. Chaim was born there January 24, 1940 in Arctic weather, in wartime. After the war, they returned to Lodz, only to discover that everyone in the family there had perished in the Holocaust. The next stop was Tashkent, where Chaim’s sister, Chana, was born. Eventually the Singers made their way to Marseilles, France, headed for then Palestine.

In 1947, they were placed aboard the Exodus, a ship which came to represent the desperate struggle that survivors endured trying to reach the Promised Land. Great Britain, which had the mandate for Palestine, had promised the Arabs to keep Jewish immigrants out. Making an example of the Exodus, British destroyers rammed the Exodus on either side, but failed to crush the ship or the determined spirit of the 4,519 people on board.

Chaim spoke of the children being placed in the center of the ship, as British troops tried to board, and watching as the troops armed with submachine guns were resisted by passengers and crew armed with potatoes and canned goods. People were shot or thrown overboard to drown. Eventually, British armed might prevailed and the Exodus was forced to sail back to France. When the passengers refused to disembark, the Exodus was then forced to sail to Hamburg, German, where the passengers were interned in a vacated concentration camp. The media furor over the treatment of the survivors eventually forced Great Britain to relent, and Chaim and his family entered the Promised Land on British ships. The Exodus incident was pivotal in awakening the conscience of United Nations delegates to vote in November, 1947, a partition Plan for Israel, the forerunner for Statehood in May, 1948.

Chaim served military duty in the Israeli Army and was honorably discharged after the loss of his hand. He studied at the Technion in Haifa and became a draftsman. In 1963, he emigrated to the United States where working days and studying nights, he received his B.A. in Architectural Studies from New York University.

In 1976, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he worked as an architect and general contractor. He was employed at Skidmore, Owings, both in NYC and Bay Area. Eventually, he headed his own architectural firm.

He left architecture in the 1990s to become a sculptor. He lived in Italy in Pietra Santa, an area where Carara marble is found. His mentor was Marcello Tommasi and he shared space with Fernando Botero. Chaim’s works, which won international competitions, were erected in Israel and deal with profound themes: Creation of Life, Man’s Relationship to Knowledge, Passages of Time.

Chaim was “a charming, articulate, wise spirit, physically strong, with an amazing sense of beauty and the aesthetic,” is the tribute paid by his son, Ivan. Chaim is further survived by grandchildren, Joseph, Sebastian, Liam, Charlotte and Becket; sister, Chana Raizer (Aaron), sister-in-law, Susie Singer, widow of predeceased brother, Schlomo; numerous nieces and nephews; friends, Martin, David and Eric Politzer, Jeff Berry, and Sondra Markowitz.

Chaim’s determination to survive was an inspiration to all who knew him. He will be remembered as a devoted father and grandfather, accomplished sculptor and gifted architect. Chaim was buried near his family at Kibbutz Givat Haslosha, Israel. A memorial will be held in Berkeley, Sunday September 19, 2010 at 3 p.m. For details, e-mail [email protected].

Raymond Gerald Walters

Born August 15, 1938 – August 29, 2010. Resident of Rio Vista, CA. Previously residing in Glen Cove, Vallejo and Concord, CA.

Passed away peacefully, with his loving family by his side, after many, many years of bad health.

Prior to the family coming to the USA, in 1984, they lived in England, France, Italy and Holland, traveling for business.

Born to Hettie and Sid Walters in London, England.

Additionally to his skills of computers, being a great husband, dad and good bridge player, Ray was also known as “Mr. Fix-it” He could build anything, repair anything and always with patience. Ray served on the HOA in the Camino Del Sol Community for five years. Was given the nickname, Mayor of CDS.

Ray is survived by his loving wife Jeanette, aka: Jan (of 42 years), children Sharon and Matthew, daughter-in-law Connie and son-in-law David, grandchildren, Damian, Jaycey, Ashton and Solly. Brother Arnold and his family. Ray was a very noble man. He will be missed by everyone who encountered him.

The “Celebration of Ray’s Life” will be held at the Delta Club, at Trilogy in Rio Vista, CA Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010 at 12 p.m.