Shirlee GILBERT

1934 - 2022

GILBERT, Shirlee C.

Age 87, of Dayton, passed away Sunday, May 1, 2022. Shirlee was born to Morris and Rose Cooper in Canton, Ohio, on May 2, 1934. She graduated from Canton McKinley High School and attended The Ohio State University where she

majored in education and was a member of Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority. While at OSU she met her future husband, Ronald. They married on December 26, 1953. In 1959, Shirlee and Ron moved to Dayton when he joined the practice of the late Dr. Charles Thomas. Shirlee was a doer. She served as President of the Women's Auxiliary of the Ohio Optometric Association and worked at Dayton

Optometric. She was very involved with the Jewish community of Dayton, serving as President of Temple Israel, Chair of the JCC Board, helped to settle Russian immigrants, chaired the Women's Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton and also served on it's Board and was the Adult President of the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization. She also served on the Jewish Family Services Advisory Board. In 2004, Shirlee and Ron were presented with the Robert A. Shapiro Award from the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. In 2012, Shirlee was the JCC Volunteer of the Year. She was involved with

Hadassah, served as a Temple Israel Sunday School teacher and was the recipient of the 2017 God Squad Award. Shirlee did SO much for our Jewish community! Whenever a new idea for a program or event was presented to Shirlee, she was always receptive and willing to plan anything she felt was in the best interest of the entire community. She was on multiple sub-committees including the JCC Fundraising Committee, the Women's Seder Committee and the Cultural Arts and Book Festival Committee. Shirlee was wonderful at planning JFS holiday outreach bags, Active Adult activities, La'Chaim events, and so much more. She will be dearly missed. Besides her community involvement, the most important thing in Shirlee's life was family. She was always supportive of her sons, Marc Gilbert (Annette Nathan), Jeff (Cathy) Gilbert, and Heath (Rachel) Gilbert, 12 grandchildren, Travis (Penina), Erica (Nate) Bachman, Sarah (Nate) Hulse, Michael, Zach, Avi, Chava, Zeke, Livy, Alexis, Caitlin, and Brianna, and five great-grandchildren, Efrayim, Esther, Yehudah, Daniel and Menachem, and her nephews, Scott and Steve (Kinthea). She was preceded in death by her parents, brother Marvin Cooper, and husband Ronald. Funeral service was held Thursday, May 5, 2022, at Temple Israel. Interment was at Riverview Cemetery in Dayton. Memorial contributions may be made to the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, Temple Israel or a deserving charity of your choosing. Glickler Funeral Home handled the arrangements.