Judge Alice Lee Gilbert, 88, died on December 9.
"Trailblazer" is the most fitting moniker attributable to Gilbert. Her trailblazing cut across many paths, and the paths that she blazed are more aglow now than ever. Back when the glass ceiling was made of marble, she smashed all gender barriers.
Growing up in the Chicago area, Gilbert resolved that she would attend the best college possible and moved across the country. Majoring in political science and economics, she attended Wellesley College, leaving in her late year for Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
Gilbert was a lifelong learner, and her post-graduate studies included work at the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration (now known as Harvard Kennedy School), Wayne State University Law School, University of Detroit Law School, University of Michigan, and several courses at The National Judicial College at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Her trailblazing continued in law school where she was just one of two women. She was a bright and determined lawyer, and resolved to make her mark and go her own way. Bucking all custom, when she married, she maintained her surname and in 1957 sued to practice law under her surname rather than her married name.
Out of the courtroom, she was a founding member of the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), the first female member of the Oakland County Bar Association, and a founder of the Oakland County Women's Bar Association. Gilbert became just the third woman elected as a circuit court judge in the history of the state of Michigan, and the first in Oakland County. Over the course of her career, she presided over 110,000 cases.
Gilbert was a voracious traveler, including climbing the Andes Mountains and going on expeditions to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England, France, Italy, Egypt, Israel, Russia, China, and Africa.
She remarked to a newspaper, "I started with a philosophy that I have one goal living my life. That's family and career. I never divided it." Gilbert was the wife of the late Murray P. Greenblatt and the late Dr. Herbert J. Bloom; mother of Gwen Gilbert, Greg (Carolynn) Gilbert, and Dean (Christina) Greenblatt; grandmother of Ariel Zekelman, Leah Zekelman, Jonah Zekelman, Andrew Gilbert, Jennifer (Michael) McManus, Julia Gilbert, Katherine Greenblatt, David Greenblatt, and Allison Greenblatt; sister of the late Henry Gilbert; and daughter of the late Rebecca and the late Alfred Gilbert.
A private family service was conudcted on Sunday, December 13, by the Ira Kaufman Chapel,
It is suggested that those who wish to further honor the memory of Gilbert may do so by making a contribution to:
-Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network (www.jewishhospice.org), 6555 West Maple, West Bloomfield, 48322
-Holocaust Memorial Cente (www.holocaustcenter.org), 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, 48334
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