Thomas George Zraik

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade staff writer

Thomas George Zraik, who brought idealism and a keen intellect to his longstanding law practice, died Saturday in Arbors of Sylvania. He was 85.

He had been in ill health, his sister Linda Zraik said.

Mr. Zraik continued to help clients, even recently.

"Tom loved making a difference in people's lives and contributing," Ms. Zraik said.

Mr. Zraik of Sylvania was a law graduate of Ohio State University and was admitted to the Ohio Bar on Oct. 17, 1964, according to the Ohio Supreme Court database. He began his career with a Toledo law firm, which when he became a partner nearly five years later was renamed Mittendorf, Reiser & Zraik, The Blade reported in 1969.

"Tom was somebody who sought to have what was right be honored," Ms. Zraik said. "He was highly idealistic, and he wanted to see fair and right things happen for people."

In earlier decades, brother and sister stayed up until all hours debating matters of philosophy and ethics and religion.

"He was just a genius at being able to see many different views of life, which made him very good as an attorney," she said. "He could see the views of people he was arguing against. That kept him always so fair minded."

He had the ability to listen, first cousin Susan Wroblewski said.

"Having lived a full life, he never sat in judgment of anybody. He did his best for his clients," Mrs. Wroblewski said.

Mr. Zraik relished competition.

"Being a lawyer, you better love competition," Ms. Zraik said. In his youth, he was a left-handed pool whiz and in turn taught his right-handed sister Linda to play left-handed at the Friendly Center in North Toledo.

"I could beat most people," she said. "He left this legacy. He loved the mental challenge."

And he excelled at the mental challenge of pool and such competitive games as poker - and his earnings from competition helped pay for his education.

He was born Feb. 18, 1937, to Marie and Edward Zraik and grew up on Ontario Street and then Huron Street in the north end. His grandfather Thomas Zraik was a pioneer of the local Arab community, a Christian from what is now Lebanon who settled in North Toledo in the 1890s.

The younger Mr. Zraik was a graduate of Woodward High School, where he was president of his 1954 graduating class. At the University of Toledo, he was president of Alpha Sigma Phil fraternity and of the Interfraternity Council. He belonged to the varsity golf team and took part in theater.

He later was a member of Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Belmont Country Club in Perrysburg Township, and Innisbrook Golf Club in Tarpon Springs, Fla.

"The most pronounced thing about Tom was the family man he was," Ms. Zraik said. "The No. 1 thing that drove Tom's life was love of family."

As a teenager, he took time to play with younger relatives, including Mrs. Wroblewski.

"We were a very close family. I was like his little sister," she said.

Those who walked into the home he shared with his wife, Mary, and their children, "no matter what their background was or what they did in life, they were welcomed," his sister Ms. Zraik said. "They were accepted. They were included. They felt like it was their home was well.

"He was never one that was gushy, but when you were with Tom, you knew you were loved. You knew you were known," Ms. Zraik said. "He would play and tease and joke, and you'd feel like a million bucks around him."

Surviving are his wife, the former Mary Cavasinni, whom he married Aug. 15, 1964; daughters Tomlyn Chambers, Molly Zraik, and Jennifer Eck; son, Edward Zraik; sisters Renee McGee and Linda Zraik, and nine grandchildren.

Memorial services will begin at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Reeb Funeral Home, Sylvania.