Obituaries

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Denise Taber Finard-Of Boston, on December 10, 2023.Beloved wife of William Finard. Dear stepmother of Todd Finard and his wife Andrea Goldman-Finard and their children Jacob, Murray Rose and Benjamin Finard, and Jacqueline Finard Hughes and her husband Robert and their children Molly and Izzie Hughes. Loving sister of Diane Jones, and David Taber and his wife Marie. Services at Temple Israel, 477 Longwood Ave., Boston (parking on The Riverway) on Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 11:00 am. Following interment at Temple Israel Cemetery, Wakefield, memorial observance will be at the home of Jacqueline and Robert Hughes until 5:00 pm and Friday 1-4 pm. In lieu of flowers remembrances may be made to The Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Research Center, 55 Fruit St., Boston, MA 02114.

Robert Henry  Bode-Of Dedham, on December 10, 2023.

Sarel Kromer, 84, of Arlington, MA, passed away after a straight set loss (7-6, 7-6) to leukemia.  She was preceded in death by husband Philip Frederick Kromer III (“PF”), and is survived by her three children (Philip, Mark, and Matthew), seven grandchildren, and innumerable found family: five married couples she first introduced, and dozens of mentees who regard her as an adopted mother.

Sarel was born in 1939 in Pawling, NY to Erwin and Leah Kandell.  Her childhood blended elements of small-town post-war life (working as a soda jerk at her father’s pharmacy, maintaining her family’s rental property at Whaley Lake); a Jewish-American upbringing (weekend trips to the city to visit family, lunch at Sardi’s); and precocious signs of the intellect that would define her professional life (she often reminisced about how as 14-year old she got permission to skip school to watch the Army-McCarthy hearings).  Sarel attended Smith College, and then, in her words, “talked her way into Cornell Law School the week before school started in September, 1960” at a time when the campus was brimming with political fervor.

She spent the next decade as a pioneer in the field of public interest law, advocating for the causes she was passionate about: migrant rights, voting rights, women’s rights, civil rights, housing, court administration, and pursuing economic and social justice in Appalachia during stints with the New York Attorney General’s office, the Migrant Legal Action Network, the Ford Foundation, and the League of Women’s Voters, where she helped establish the National Women’s Vote Center.  She married Philip Frederick Kromer III (“PF”) in 1973 after a decade-long friendship that started at Cornell, followed by a rapid courtship.  Three children — Philip, Mark, and Matthew — followed quickly, and raising her children became the focus of her life for the next two decades.

Her passions included travel, tennis, scrabble, connecting people, photography, and public advocacy.  She traveled to more than 100 countries, with a specific proclivity for talking her way into countries on the State Department’s “travel advisory” list. A friend could throw a wedding anywhere in the world at any time (Vietnam, India, England, France, Portugal, New Zealand, Kazakhstan, ….) and she’d be there in elegant style. She found ways to leverage her travel into something more meaningful.  A 2005 trip to Rwanda inspired her to write and teach extensively on the post-genocide healing process, culminating in her contribution to the development of the Rwanda Peace Narratives Toolkit, a model curriculum for teaching the principles of non-violent conflict resolution published by the Center for Peace Building International.  She also traveled extensively to the former Soviet Republics through her volunteer work with American Councils FLEX program, whose mission is to foster international understanding through foreign exchanges with future leaders.

To the end, Sarel did what she loved: in the month prior to checking into the hospital, she traveled to Kazakhstan for a friend’s wedding, played tennis with and watched her grandchildren for the weekend, and ate a lot of ice cream.  She passed away in her hospital surrounded by friends and family.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to Search for Common Ground or the American Councils.

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Selma Ann Slotnick Lait was born on February 18, 1936 at Boston Lying In Hospital to the late Celina Cooper and Isadore “Ike” Slotnick.   She passed away peacefully, December 9, 2023 at Newton Wellesley Hospital following a sudden decline in her health.  Her daughters, Marci Lait and Beth Lait Harris spent her final days with her.

Selma graduated from Barnard College in NYC in 1957 with a degree in fine arts.  After returning to Boston, where she married the late Robert L Lait, Selma enjoyed a long career in teaching.  She started out at Spalding Elementary in Newton and continued for years in more schools than you can name throughout Framingham, where she and Bob had settled and raised their girls.  She mostly taught reading, spanning all levels from remedial to exceptional.  Her tenure as a teacher was only interrupted by bringing up her kids in their formative years and by the tragic illness she suffered in 1979.  Not only did she recover from the brinks, she did so as a pioneering patient under the care of her revolutionary surgeon, the late Dr Michael Scott.  Following this chapter, she heroically returned to the classroom and courageously continued to teach young children in spite of her speech impairment.

Selma (or Sunny to many of her friends) was an avid patron of the arts, befitting her education.  Perhaps what many would remember her best for was her love of the opera.  She would routinely travel to NYC to attend the Met; when she was no longer able, she would attend Met broadcasts that had popped up in movie theaters.  She talked about The Barber of Seville and Lucia di Lammermoor up to the end, and fittingly, as all who knew her well, in her own attempt at Italian.

Selma leaves behind her daughters, Marci Lait of Manteo NC and Beth Harris of Somerset England as well as her two grandsons, Kai Harris of London England and Yul Harris of Indonesia.  She was predeceased by her husband Robert, way too early, and by her parents, Celena and Ike Slotnick, her sister and brother-in-law Dotti and Gene Green and her brother and sister-in-law Eileen and Hale Lait.  She has so many loving family members on both sides who have supported her over the years not to mention friends near and far, new and old, who have continued to stand by her and help her in her later years.

It is hard to pick out any one place to memorialize her, however, given that her most consistent limitation in life, and particularly in her final months, was her speech, the family would like to suggest that they consider helping others afflicted with aphasia, a problem that can devastate expressive and/or receptive language, by making a donation to the National Aphasia Association at aphasia.org.  Selma supported many causes, however, in her memory we would like to honor her by helping others who have been similarly robbed of their voice.

Graveside services will be held at Beth Israel Cemetery in Everett on Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 12:30 pm.  Those who would like to but are unable to attend can contact the family to join us virtually. Shiva will be held at 2:45 pm on Thursday, December 14, 2023 in the Palanquin Room, Heritage Assisted Living, 747 Water St., Framingham, MA 01701.

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Celia Savitz Strauss (1967-2023)

Celia Savitz Strauss, who died peacefully at home on December 7th, prized the most important things in life—her family, her close friendships, and love. First and foremost and above all else, Celia loved her husband Adam and their son Kalman. She filled their lives with adventure and nature, music and stillness, tight hugs and ample space. For Celia, creating a stable and loving family with Adam and Kalman was her greatest accomplishment.

Celia lived her values. By personal example, she showed all who knew her how to turn judgment into empathy, how to be vulnerable without shame, how to apologize and how to forgive. She spoke truthfully and eschewed small talk. She was grateful for simple things and cherished love as the greatest gift of all.

Celia noticed. She looked at people with x-ray vision, seeing each one’s essence often before they could see it for themselves. Those who met her only once felt that she understood them. Celia also noticed the natural world. She saw individual leaves where others saw trees; she detected the undetectable opening of a flower. Even when walking in the woods became difficult, it was Celia who spotted the new mushroom, who saw the face in the tree trunk, who found the heart-shaped leaf. Celia’s eye—for the best in people and for the beauty in nature—invited others to look more carefully and to notice more.

Celia was a fearless chooser of life. She fought for her own life after her premature birth. She fought for her son’s life during her high-risk pregnancy.  And her valiant fight with cancer was a master class. Perhaps because of those battles, Celia believed deeply in the power of choice—choosing happiness, choosing gratitude, choosing meaning, choosing how to learn from setbacks and loss. Toward the end of her life she wrote, “Some think only those who have it easy can make choices. This is not the case. Choosing is really and truly hard. It is active. It is work. It is possible.”

Celia was an educator. At Harvard, where she ran CityStep, and for the next 35 years—formally and informally—Celia helped schools offer children the education they deserve, which she regarded as the civil rights issue of our time.

Celia died as she lived—with incomparable strength, with gratitude and with love. She was preceded in death by her father David Savitz and is survived by Adam Strauss, her husband of 26 years, and their beloved son Kalman Strauss; her mother Roberta Apfel (Bennett Simon) and stepmother Libby Keller; her brother Michael Savitz (Karin) and sister Molly Savitz (Jeff Merkowitz); her half-brother Paul Savitz and half-sister Emma Savitz (Sam Crawford); her stepbrother Jonathan Simon (Cherie Rosenblum) and stepsister Amy Simon; her beloved uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces, and in-laws; and scores of friends, old and new.

Funeral Services will be held on Sunday, December 10th at 10:30 am at Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street in Newton, and live streamed at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83755409947. The burial will follow the service at the Beit Olam Cemetery, 60 Old Sudbury Road in Wayland. Shiva will be at the Strauss home, 2 Kelley Lane in Wayland: following the burial until 6 pm; Monday, December 11th and Tuesday, December 12th,  5-8 pm.

In lieu of flowers, Celia requested that you please express your love to somebody for the unique person that they are.

Messages to the family can be posted on the Boston Globe Legacy Site.

Stephan R. Blacher-Of Bailey, Colorado, Formerly of Boston, on December 7, 2023.Beloved husband of Gaetane (Bernard) Blacher. Beloved son of Constance Blacher and the late David Blacher.

Graveside services at Sharon Memorial Park on Friday, December 15, 2023 at 1:45pm

Of Boston, December 7, 2023.  Beloved wife of the late Wallace Yaffe and beloved sister of the late Charles Shaw. Loving mother of Peter and Jeff Yaffe. Devoted aunt of Jacob Abrams, Peter, Michael and Eric Shaw. Also survived by her sister-in-law Linda Shaw. Funeral service will be private. A Celebration of Life will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, remembrances in memory of Doris may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, at splcenter.org, or the American Heart Association at www.heart.org.

Charlotte Chiten, 96, passed away on December 6, 2023, peacefully in her home.

She was born on January 4, 1927 in Mattapan, MA. She grew up in Mattapan, as did her future husband, Howard, who just happened to live right across the street. Very romantic.

The word “lively” could have been invented for Charlotte. She could charm anybody with her effervescent and playful personality. Her dry wit was second to none. Her singular sense of humor stayed strong to the very end.

Charlotte had an amazing memory. She outlived everyone of her generation of  the family. The next generation of cousins would always call her to get historic information about the family, as she was the only one left. She regularly referred to herself as “The last of the Mohicans.”

Charlotte had a passion for antiques. She loved how it bridged the past with the present.

Charlotte will be greatly missed by all of those whose lives she touched.

She is survived by her son, Paul Chiten and her daughter Laurel Chiten.

To view the funeral recording please click here.

Greenberg, Julie Michel, of Weston, MA, formerly of Poughkeepsie, NY, passed away on December 5, 2023, after battling a long illness. Beloved wife of Jim Greenberg. Dear daughter of the late Richard and Ada Michel. Proud mother of Douglas Greenberg and his wife Talia Waskin, Hilary Greenberg, William Greenberg, and their dog Nellie. Loving sister of Lisa Michel and Jane Cohen. Funeral service at Temple Beth Elohim, 10 Bethel Rd., Wellesley, MA on Friday, December 8, 2023 at 10:30 am. Following interment at Or Emet Cemetery, 776 Baker St., West Roxbury, memorial observance will be at the Greenberg residence through Friday night. Memorial observance will continue Saturday and Sunday beginning at 11:00 am. In lieu of flowers, donations in Julie’s memory may be made to JF&CS, 1430 Main St., Waltham, MA 02451.

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Lisa Dawn Teeter-Of Needham, on December 3, 2023.Beloved wife of Joshua Teeter. Devoted mother of Elliot and David Teeter. Dear daughter of Judith Keone and the late Charles. Dear sister of Lori and Deborah. Services at Temple Beth Shalom, 670 Highland Avenue, Needham, on Wednesday, December 6,2023 at 10:00 am. Interment will be at a later date in Virginia. Following service family and friends are invited to the Teeter Residence 106 Windsor Rd. Needham until 2:00 pm. Remembrances may be made to Dana Farber Cancer Institute, PO Box 849168, Boston, MA 02284( www.dana-farber.org)