When the phone rings on that certain Sunday and a federation volunteer asks you for a donation — that was Jerome Dick’s idea.
Dick, a former longtime solicitor for the United Jewish Appeal, was frustrated at the incredible effort he and others would have to expend to track down even low- to mid-level donors. So, at a UJA convention in the early 1980s, he had an epiphany.
“Rather than making this a drudgery type of job, he thought, ‘Why don’t we bring together the community, do it all one day and make it an event people want to come to and participate in?'” said his son Brett Dick, a San Francisco tax attorney.
Jerry Dick’s creation: Super Sunday.
Dick, a resident of Arlington, Va. with strong Bay Area ties, died Sunday, Oct. 2. He was 88.
Dick’s creation took off to the point that every federation in the nation now has its own Super Sunday. In fact, Dick served as national Super Sunday chairman at the same time his son Randy Dick was the S.F.-based JCF’s chair.
“He’d call me up and tell me [San Francisco] wasn’t making enough money,” deadpanned Randy Dick, who, like his identical twin, Brett, is a San Francisco tax attorney.
With sons and grandchildren in San Francisco, Dick was a frequent visitor. He was close with many of the San Francisco federation’s major players.
In Northern Virginia, where he lived in the same house since 1948, Dick had a reputation as a “doer” and was the man to call if a crisis arose in the Jewish community.
There was the time when members of a synagogue called him in a panic and said that their roof had sprung a major leak just five days before Rosh Hashanah.
“My dad said, ‘Don’t worry’ and called 10 people and said to them, ‘You have two choices: You can write me a check or you can bring an umbrella to services.’ He collected the money and they repaired the roof in time,” recalled Brett Dick.
A native New Yorker, Dick was just 15 when he entered the University of Michigan. During his senior year, he met Zelda. Their marriage lasted 55 years until her death in 1995.
During World War II, he was a captain in the Marines. He served stateside as a judge advocate general, but did not discuss his experiences with his family, according to his son-in-law, Ricky Turetsky.
Zelda Dick used to joke that she never knew how many strangers he would bring home from synagogue for Shabbat dinner. One night, a stranger turned out to be Robert Briscoe, the first Jewish lord mayor of Dublin.
When he wasn’t involved in Jewish causes, Dick was active in Democratic politics and a die-hard sports fan, particularly of the Washington Redskins. One of the highlights of his sporting life was leading three generations of Dicks to the 1987 Super Bowl and watching the ‘Skins upset the Denver Broncos, 42-10.
Jerome Dick is survived by his twin sons, Brett and Randy of San Francisco; son Michael of Annandale, Va.; and daughter Pamela Turetsky of Miami Beach, Fla. He is also survived by 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Contributions may be made to the Zelda and Jerome Dick Scholarship Fund of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, 121 Steuart St., S.F., 94104.
Joe Eskenazi is a staff writer for j., the jewish news weekly. Debra Rubin is editor of the Washington Jewish Week.