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June 11, 2004/Sivan 22 5764, Vol. 56, No. 38
A man of many good deedsPAULA SOBOLThe Mishnah counts acts of human kindness, gemiluth hasadim, as a virtue that includes directly or indirectly helping others. Ray Silverman has lived a good part of his life doing just that. At 90, he looks back at his life with humor and with great pragmatism."I was a poor boy, born and raised in Chicago," Silverman says. "But I graduated from Northwestern University and in 1937, I graduated and got my first job. I was an accountant with The Match Corporation of America and I made $17.50 a week." In that same year, he married his wife, Lee. They had three children, Richard, Tom and Carole. Richard is the general manager for The Salt River Project and Tom is the manager of his father's property, Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, and just finished serving on the Scottsdale City Council. His daughter Carole is the manager of the restaurant and catering service at the hotel. After 15 years with the Match Corporation, Silverman became its director in 1950. However, he and wife Lee decided against any more cold weather and moved to Phoenix. With the help of his uncle, whose portrait is behind his desk in a comfortable office filled with papers, folders, memorabilia, diplomas and honorary plaques, this quiet man tells of buying 12 units on The Paradise Valley Guest Ranch, which is now Chaparral Suites' property. This eventually extended to 37 units. When Tom graduated from ASU, he became the manager. Then Silverman met Bob Wooley, CEO of Granada Hotel Suites Corporation, a company in which he was an investor. "I liked the way the company worked and after a talk with Wooley, I got the first franchise the company awarded. "The ranch property was scraped in 1978 (with the exception of some buildings given to charities), and The Chaparral Suites were built on the northeast corner of Scottsdale and Chaparral roads. The hotel and other investments kept Silverman from much civic activity, although he managed to belong to three synagogues: Temple Beth Israel (Rabbi Albert Plotkin is his cousin), Har Zion Congregation and Temple Solel. With modesty, Silverman believes that he was in the right place at the right time and made some good choices. Remembering his father's loss of three homes in Chicago, he decided never to mortgage property and he never did. In 1992, Lee died and, as a grieving husband, Silverman was acutely aware of the importance of nursing skills in caring for patients. He started a $500,000 scholarship fund at the Scottsdale Community College Department of Nursing and since then, the program has given 12-18 scholarships a year - $600 per semester - to 375 students. Their letters are lovingly kept in a file folder at his fingertips. A married woman with children writes an ecstatic thank-you note for making it possible for her to get a nursing degree, a single mother writes with gratitude for being enabled to pursue a career which will afford her children a better life and a disadvantaged young woman praises Silverman for "caring so much." But they aren't the only ones to feel the Silverman touch. Every year, in August, the hotel's human resources director goes to every staff member and finds out how many of their children need school supplies and then buys the required equipment. When asked about this program, Silverman shrugs gently and says, " Well, their parents work hard and never make enough money to buy everything they need, so why wouldn't I do it?" This low-key person also admits to participating in the Arizona Community Foundation and giving undisclosed amounts to the Scottsdale Boys and Girls Club. Silverman's three children, five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren come together every Hanukkah. When asked what sort of a message he would give to his family, Silverman said he wouldn't do that: life today is too different from his experiences. His only reason for allowing anything to be made public about what he has done is to possibly encourage other people with means and corporations to enter the mainstream of philanthropy. He believes that the Jewish attitude toward anonymity in giving is, for him, of paramount importance. Ray Silverman is a humble and kindly man and, at about 5'5" in height, is a giant. "In Our Midst" highlights members of Phoenix's Jewish community. Paula Sobol is a longtime Phoenix resident. |
