Obituaries

S. George Bromberg- of Lexington, passed away on January 31, 2015. He is survived by his devoted wife of 55 years, Carol, his loving sons, David, and Larry and his wife Renee, and his cherished grandchildren, who uplifted his spirits throughout his lengthy illness. Born in Malden, he pursued a career in law and public service. In the early nineteen-seventies he was a strong anti-smoking advocate, declaring no smoking in his law offices and his State House hearings, where he served as Chairman of the State Ballot Commission for ten years. An early proponent of gun laws, he drew up the corporation for “People versus Handguns” which initiated a referendum in Massachusetts seeking a total ban on handguns. Energetic and determined in his professional life, he applied the same energy and determination in his retirement years which served him well as he battled his many illnesses. Interment and memorial observance will be private. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to MGH Cancer Center, 55 Fruit St., Boston, MA 02114.

Shifman, Joel H.– of Bellingham, MA, formerly of Stoughton, suddenly on January 31, 2015.  For 45 beautiful and loving years Joel was the beloved husband of Sue (Berenson) Shifman. Incredible father of Elisha Stone and her husband John of Sutton and Michael Shifman and his wife Anuke  of Bellingham. He was blessed with five grandchildren: Austin, Taylor, Evan, Logan and Blake. He was the son of the late Lena and Lawrence Shifman and brother of Norman and Sandy Shifman and Edward and Sandy Shifman. Loving brother-in-law of the late Narla McGill. He will forever be remembered in our hearts and memories as the man who would give you “the shirt off his back”. He was the superman of fathers who could do anything in our eyes. Services  at The Chapel at Sharon Memorial Park, 40 Dedham St., Sharon, MA, on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 2:00 pm.    Remembrances may be made to the American Heart Association, 300  5^th Ave., Suite 6, Waltham, MA  02451.

Shirley Stone-Services pending.

Lee M. Gardner-of Newton,  age 41, passed away at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center on Friday, January 30, 2015, after a courageous battle with heart disease. Devoted father of Fallon Dana Gardner. Beloved son of Jay Gardner and the late Ardelle (Levine) Gardner. Dear brother of  Scott Gardner. Survived by his former wife Pamela Boilen Gardner. Devoted grandson of  Paula Levine and the late P. Raymond Levine and the late Arnold and Ann-Gordon Gardner. Also survived by loving aunts and uncles and numerous cousins. Services at The Wilson Chapel, 234 Herrick Rd., Newton Centre (on the campus of Hebrew College and Andover-Newton Theological School), on Tuesday, February 3, 2015  at  12:00 noon. Following interment at Lindwood Memorial Park, Randolph, memorial observance will be held at his residence until 6:00 pm and Wednesday 2-7 pm. In lieu of flowers remembrances may be made to a charity of your choice.

To  view the service on Tuesday,  Please go to        Ustream.tv/andovernewton

The service will appear at 11:55  from Wilson Chapel

PRANSKY, Irving- formerly of Stoughton and Brookline, on January 29, 2015. Beloved husband of the late Pauline (Berger). Devoted father of Alan Pransky (Deborah) and Deborah Levine (Mark). Dear grandfather of Joshua and Ethan Pransky, Eric and Scott Levine, and great-grandfather of Micah Pransky. Loving brother of the late Joseph, Julius, Sarah, Bess, Ada and Gertrude. Services at Ahavath Torah Congregation, 1179 Central St., Stoughton, on Sunday, February 1, 2015 at 9:30 am. Following interment at Lindwood Memorial Park, Randolph, memorial observance at the home of Deborah and Mark Levine on Sunday until 6:00 pm and Monday 4-8 pm. Memorial observance will also be at the home of Alan and Deborah Pransky on Monday, and will continue there on Tuesday and Wednesday. Remembrances may be made to The Jimmy Fund, 10 Brookline Place West, Brookline, MA 02445 or Friends of the I.D.F., 1430 Broadway, New York, New York 10018.

of Needham, formerly of NYC and Atlanta, GA, on January 29, 2015. Beloved wife of the late Dr. Morton Bard. Devoted mother of Erica Bard Riley and Pamela Bard Richlin and her husband Dean. Cherished grandmother of Caleb Bard Riley, Jonathan Bard Riley, Eli Bard Richlin and his wife Sabrina Blum, Sara Bard Richlin, and Johanna Bard Richlin and her husband Gabriel Paquette. Dear great-grandmother of Dalia Grace Richlin and Calla Juliet Richlin. Loving sister of Sondra Frank and her husband Arnold. Sister-in-law of Leonard Bard and his wife Elaine, Ruth Bard Petkofsky and her late husband Lester, and Sharon Bard Rulf and her late husband Benjamin. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Services at Temple Israel, 477 Longwood Ave., Boston, (validated parking in the parking garage on Nessel Way), on Sunday, February 1, 2015, at 1:45 pm. Memorial observance will be held at the temple immediately following the service. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the American Heart Association, 300 Fifth Ave., Suite 6, Waltham, MA 02451 or to a charity of choice.

Melvin Bravman of Waterstone at Wellesley Independent Living, formerly of Great Neck, NY died surrounded by his loving family,on January 28, 2015. Mel grew up in Dorchester, MA and graduated from Roxbury Memorial High School. He earned a degree in electrical engineering from Tufts University in the Naval V-12 program in 1946 and served proudly as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, the love of his life, Estelle (Dubrow) Bravman. Devoted father of Laurel Bravman Kaplan and her husband Robert, and Richard Bravman and his wife Debra. Mel was a devoted and attentive grandfather to his grandchildren: Julie Kaplan, Lindsey Kaplan, Nikki Kaplan, Jason Bravman, Rachel Bravman Blumenthal and her husband Neil, and his great-grandson Griffin Blumenthal. He shared a special bond with each of them. Dear brother of Sylvia Abrams, and Sumner Bravman and his wife Judy. Also survived by loving nieces and nephews. Mel was president of Dubrow and Bravman, manufacturer of children’s wear. He was an avid tennis player, enjoying both the camaraderie and the game. He was a man of the highest integrity, judgment, and a virtuous role model for his family. He was immensely proud of his family and fiercely loyal to them. Services at Sharon Memorial Chapel, 40 Dedham St., Sharon, on Sunday, February 1, 2015 at 2:00 pm. Following interment memorial observance will be at the home of Laurel and Robert Kaplan until 6:00 pm, and Monday 6-9 pm. In lieu of flowers remembrances may be made to Combined Jewish Philanthropies, 126 High St., Boston, MA,02110.

Bilsky, Lois R. (Dunn), of Framingham, on January 26, 2015. Beloved wife of the late Morton E. Bilsky. Devoted mother of Edward Bilsky and his wife Susan. Dear grandmother of Michela Peruzzi. Services in the Chapel at Sharon Memorial Park, 40 Dedham Street, Sharon, MA, on Friday, January 30, 2015 at 12 Noon. Following services,  memorial observance will be at the home of Edward and Susan Bilsky, Friday only through 7:30 pm. Remembrances in her memory may be made to St. Patrick’s Manor, 863 Central St., Framingham, MA 01701.

By Bryan MarquardGlobe Staff  January 26, 2015

In the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., stands a 3-foot-tall bronze bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that is surely the most viewed creation of John Wilson, an artist who grew up in Roxbury and painted, sculpted, and made prints out of his home studio in Brookline for decades.  Like much of his most important work, the bust brings viewers to the intersection of art and politics, of pure creativity and the desire to examine social injustice. Mr. Wilson, who was 92 when he died Thursday evening in his Brookline home, pursued that path since he was a boy on Roxbury’s streets, learning to sketch and honing a burgeoning talent that eventually would place his paintings and sculptures in the Museum of Fine Arts and far beyond. A 3-foot-tall bronze bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., now in Washington, D.C., is surely the most viewed creation of John Wilson.

Mr. Wilson’s own journey to prominence was fueled in part by his reaction to art he saw as a teenager during visits to the MFA.”None of these people looked like me and just by omission the implication was that black people were not capable of being beautiful and true and precious,” he told the Globe in 1995 when “Dialogue: John Wilson/Joseph Norman,” opened at the MFA and his own sculptures and sketches shared museum space with the work that drew his criticism years before.

Of that show, Globe art critic Christine Temin wrote that Mr. Wilson “emerges as a powerful artist, too little known for someone who has produced stellar work for half a century.”Writing about “Eternal Presence,” a career survey of Mr. Wilson’s work that opened in 2012 in Danforth Art, Globe art critic Sebastian Smee called him “one of Boston’s most esteemed and accomplished artists” and wrote that from Mr. Wilson’s early sketches to his more recent large-scale charcoal drawings, “the impulse has remained the same: It is an impulse toward clarity, toward truth.”I think he will gain in importance as time goes on,” said Katherine French, director emerita of Danforth Art, where several of Mr. Wilson’s works remain on display through May 17.”He will be recognized as a major artist of the 20th century. I really have no doubt about that,” added French, who has finished curating “John Wilson: Boston’s Native Son,” a show that opens in the St. Botolph Club Feb. 18.

The second of five siblings, Mr. Wilson was born in 1922 in Roxbury, where his parents settled after emigrating from British Guiana and found little work once the Great Depression hit. Mr. Wilson always was aware of racial inequities. His father regularly read African-American newspapers such as The Amsterdam News, which seemed to have images of lynchings in “practically every other issue,” Mr. Wilson said in a 2012 interview with French, who wrote an essay about the artist that Danforth Art will soon publish.

Drawn to art classes at Roxbury Memorial High School, Mr. Wilson was art editor of the school newspaper and took classes at the Boys Club from teachers who were students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. They showed his work to faculty at the Museum school, which awarded a full scholarship to Mr. Wilson. There, he counted among his teachers Karl Zerbe, a Boston Expressionist born in Germany. Years later, critics would see early evidence of Mr. Wilson’s talent in “Boy with Bow Tie,” drawn in his mid-teens. In 1945, Mr. Wilson graduated from the Museum school with highest honors, and one of his works was included in “The Negro Artist Comes of Age,” an Albany Institute of History and Art exhibition. He taught at Boris Mirski modern art school in Boston and graduated in 1947 with a bachelor’s degree in education from Tufts University. Among his key works during those years was a print depicting Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of Richard Wright’s 1940 novel “Native Son.” Mr. Wilson also developed an admiration for Mexican muralists, particularly Jose Clemente Orozco.

Awarded a traveling fellowship from the MFA, Mr. Wilson moved to Paris and studied with the modern artist Fernand Leger. After returning home, Mr. Wilson visited the Lower East Side in New York City, where he met Julie Kowitch, a teacher who had graduated from Brooklyn College. They married in 1950 and went to Mexico on a John Hay Whitney Fellowship. As an interracial couple, they traveled by necessity in separate cars while passing through the segregated South.

Though Orozco died a few months before he arrived in Mexico, Mr. Wilson was drawn to mural making — art that could be viewed by those who, like him, had grown up in the streets with neither the money for museums nor social access to private collections. A lasting work from this period was “The Trial,” a lithograph depicting three judges, their faces hidden behind white theatrical masks, looming vulture-like over a young black boy who stands awaiting judgment.

Back in the United States, Mr. Wilson produced lithographs for unions in Chicago and taught in New York City before returning to Massachusetts in 1964 to teach at Boston University. Over the years, his work was included in exhibits at museums and galleries including the Museum of Fine Arts and Martha Richardson Fine Art on Newbury Street. Mr. Wilson also worked to create the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury.

“Essentially, he felt that his main objective as an artist was to deliver a message to people about black dignity, about racial justice, about poor people trying to get a better deal in life,” his wife said. But also, sketching constantly on index cards and any available scrap of paper, Mr.    Wilson composed portraits of family members, friends, and life unfolding around him. During one car trip to New York City with his daughter and infant grandson, “he did a series of sketches of him over the backseat of the car,” said his daughter Erica of Brookline. “I have them framed in my hallway.”

A service will be announced for Mr. Wilson, who in addition to his wife and daughter leaves a son, Roy, of Watertown; two brothers, Frederick and James, both of Los Angeles; and four grandchildren. Another daughter, Rebecca Wilson-Sealy, died last year.

A perfectionist in everything he did, Mr. Wilson “was incredibly physical when he worked,” his son recalled. “He moved with tremendous energy. Each stroke seemed decisive.”

In 1986, Mr. Wilson wrapped the King sculpture in blankets and an old sleeping bag, tucked it into the back of his Mazda, and headed to the Capitol Rotunda. Before that trip, he had not stepped inside the Capitol building.“Somehow it seemed like the epitome of the seat of power, and it alienated me,” he told the Globe in 1986. “I never felt part of it. But when I delivered the sculpture, that changed. I felt, ‘A piece of me is in that building.’ ”

of Wellesley, on January 20, 2015. Beloved husband of Dr. Terri Halperin. Dear son of Susan B. and Robert M. Davidson. Devoted father of Kate, Liv and Graham. Dear brother of Hillary Davidson and her husband Jordan Goldstein. Devoted son-in-law of Gunilla and Sheldon Halperin. Services at Temple Beth Elohim, 10 Bethel Rd., Wellesley, on Friday, January 23, 2015 at 10:00 am. Interment at Beit Olam East Cemetery, Wayland. Memorial observance will be announced at  the service. In lieu of flowers remembrances may be made to The Dr. Michael J. Davidson Family Fund, c/o RTN Federal Credit Union, 600 Main St., Waltham MA, 02452 or stop by an RTN branch to make your contribution.