Samuel Sheldon Reiter's Obituary
Samuel Sheldon Reiter
January 6, 1934 – June 8, 2021
SSam was born in Detroit, Michigan to Irving and Martha (Forstot) Reiter. He was born with the last name of Greenberg, a name his grandfather chose when he moved to Detroit. The family changed their name back to Reiter when he was 8 years old.
He grew up in a neighborhood near Tiger Stadium and the Red Wings Hockey Arena and was a lifelong sports fan. As a boy he would stand outside Tiger Stadium with the other boys hoping to be picked to clean the seats in exchange for a chance to see the game and his hero Hank Greenburg, “the Hebrew Hammer”. Before the family changed their name he would impress his friends by claiming to be related.
Sam was a lifelong learner. His mother taught him to read early and said that he talked his way into elementary school just after his 4th birthday. In his elementary school graduation autograph book from 1945 he wrote that his motto was “Reading the best, you can do the rest”. He continued to be a voracious reader throughout his life. Growing up I remember him reading three different newspapers a day from cover to cover, and we had more magazine subscriptions than anyone else I knew.
In 1946 the family moved to Ann Arbor, where his father, a pharmacist, purchased a drug store just off the University of Michigan campus. In Ann Arbor Sam was accepted into the University High School, run by the Education Department at the University of Michigan. In high school he ran cross country track, was active in the drama club including staring as the “Stage Manager” in the school production of Our Town by Thornton Wilder.
Following high school, he enrolled at the University of Michigan majoring in Pharmacy. He intended to use that degree to help his parents and fund his goal of becoming an Attorney. Just prior to his senior year the University changed the requirements for Pharmacy making it a 5-year program. Sam decided he didn’t want to wait an extra year and applied to the Detroit College of Law, where he graduated in 1957.
In the summer of 1956 Sam went on a blind date where he met the love of his life, Ruth Dickstein, a nursing student at the University of Michigan. They married in the fall of 1957 and moved to Owosso Michigan the following year.
As a teenager I asked him why he chose to move to such a small town, especially where there were no other Jewish people, or cultural activities. He said he wanted to be “a big fish in a small pond”, somewhere where he could make a difference in people’s lives. As soon as he arrived in Owosso he threw himself into the pond, becoming a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Air National Guard, the Elks Club (probably because it had a bowling alley) and joined the Republican Party. Yes, Sam was a Republican! Owosso was a staunchly Republican community and he felt strongly that he could make more of difference as a member of the more liberal wing of the party, fighting for social and civil rights.
A defining event of Sam’s life happened in early summer of 1963 when he suffered spinal injuries in a plane crash on his way to a National Jaycees convention in Ohio. The accident left him with permanent damage, including loss of feeling to much of his legs and the front of his feet. At the time the doctors told him he would be a wheelchair by 40. He proved them wrong and stayed on his feet throughout his 87 years. One of my first memories is of visiting him in the hospital in Flint where he lay in a full body cast. He was in the cast for six weeks and was told by the doctors that he wouldn’t be able to sit down for an additional 8-12 weeks. When asked if he could drive, the doctor said jokingly that the only way he’d be able to drive was in a milk truck. But Sam took him seriously and his brother Jim found a used truck in Detroit for $50 and drove it up to Owosso where they fit it out with a harness to keep him from falling.
Despite his physical limitations Sam continued to contribute to the community. In 1963 was a founding member of the Shiawassee County Community Mental Health Center Board of Directors, helping to establish the first community mental health clinic in Michigan and only the second in the entire United States. During his 25 year tenure he served in numerous capacities including Treasurer, Secretary, chair of all the committees and three terms a Chairman of the Board.
He also was active in numerous additional community and professional organizations, serving terms as President of the Owosso Jaycees, the Shiawassee YMCA, the Goodfellows club and the Shiawassee County Bar Association, and the Greater Lansing Legal Aid Society. He also served in various capacities at Temple Beth in Flint and was a Member of the Rotary Club and the Owosso Community Players where he acted in several plays and in directed the musical South Pacific.
As a Lawyer Sam specialized in Municipal, Bankruptcy and Real Estate Law. He was Associate City Attorn of Owosso, and City Attorney for Durand, Michigan and several other small villages and townships.
In 1965 Sam was appoint to a 1 year term as Associate Municipal Judge and went on to win election to a full 4 years term in 1966.
Sam had three children, George (1959), Sara (1961) and Ilene (1963). When the children were young the family spent time each summer at Camp Michigania, the University of Michigan Alumni Family Camp where he learned to sail. Within a couple of years, they purchased their first sailboat and shortly thereafter joined the Crystal Sailing Club, a small club on a small lake north of Owosso. The club became our family weekend getaway spending family time sailing, swimming, and fishing. Soon they purchased a Flying Scott to join the club’s fleet and participate in the races every Sunday.
Sam was an avid bowler, despite the “hitch in his gate” that gave him an interesting approach he bowled the elusive perfect 300 game in the mid- 1980s. He was a member of bowling leagues both in Owosso and the B’nai B’rith Men’s league on Sunday morning – while the kids attended religious school.
As the kids got older and were all able to read, Sam hit the road with family exploring the country with a pop-up camper. Some of trips included the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Washington, DC, Maine and Boston – traveling through Canada with stops at Niagara Falls and Quebec, and in 1974 an epic journey west hitting all the National Parks on the way to Tucson to visit family. The trip including a white-water rafting trip on the Green River near Dinosaur National Park. We also made several trips to Florida to visit his parents who had retired there and went to Disney World the first summer it opened.
Though Sam enjoyed small town life he and Ruth enjoyed cultural events and frequently made the 2+ hour drive to Detroit for evenings of theatre, symphonies and Museums. He particularly loved having season tickets to Wayne State University’s Graduate theatre program which they attended with several other couples, making an event of it exploring new restaurants in the city.
From 1958-1987 Sam enjoyed being the “Big Fish” but decided it was time for a change. They moved from Owosso to Tucson, Arizona. The reasons were many, to avoid the cold Michigan winters, be close to Ruth’s family, live in a large active Jewish community and take advantage of all the cultural offerings of the city and university.
In Tucson they joined Temple Emanuel where Sam was active in the Men’s Club. They supported small theatre in Tucson as season ticket holders to a number of companies and served as an Usher at the Arizona Theatre Company for over 30 years. They also started a “Cousins Club” with Ruth’s 5 first cousins who lived in the area. They met several times a year for “Mystery Trips” around southern Arizona.
For several years Sam worked part time as a tax preparer for H & R Block and managed an office during the Tax Season. In 1993, Sam decided he wanted to return helping people using his legal experience and began Volunteering at Southern Arizona Legal Aid. Two years later in 1995 he passed the Arizona Bar Exam (on his first try), almost 40 years after finishing law school. He began working full time at Legal Aid, helping to develop the Low-Income Tax Resolution Clinic, which later became a part of Catholic Social Services. He finally retired in 2020, just after his 86th birthday.
In lieu of flowers the Family requests that donations be made to Southern Arizona Legal Aid or the charity of your choice.
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