Eileen Judith Weiner

Eileen Judith Weiner, an attorney who reinvented herself many times-as a strategist and development officer for humanitarian health and educational nonprofits, a book reviewer and a documentary filmmaker--died at her home in Pittsburgh on September 18th. She had been diagnosed with multiple system atrophy, a progressive neurological illness, and died from complications related to it. She was 76.
"Eileen was always managing to use her knowledge and talents in new and different ways," said Rose Marcelin, a longtime friend. She was born on March 1, 1948, in New York City where her parents, Harold and Toba Weiner, ran a candy store. She graduated in 1964 from Hunter College High School, an academically challenging school that draws students from across the city, and in 1968 from City University of New York's City College. Eager to see the world and immerse herself in different cultures, she traveled to Europe and studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris. She went to Buenos Aires, where she lived for several years and taught at Berlitz. By the time she returned to the U.S., she spoke fluent Spanish with an Argentinian accent. She worked as a Public Information Officer at the United Nations Association in New York before becoming a lawyer. Eileen received her J.D., with honors, from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1984. Specializing in health care and hospital law, she was in private practice in Baltimore. She then moved to Pittsburgh, where she quickly felt at home, to serve as Senior Counsel at the predecessor of Allegheny Health Network. But it was the work she did after leaving that position in 1997-and after spending time traveling in Latin America-- that she most enjoyed. She volunteered at Global Links, the international medical aid nonprofit, and was so effective she was hired to strategize fundraising efforts and to serve as a translator on trips to Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
She subsequently was the Associate Director of the University Center for International Studies (UCIS) of the University of Pittsburgh, after first serving as Director of International Advancement for UCIS. Among other things, she helped secure a more than $1 million donation to fund scholarship and teaching about the Mideast and Africa.
"It's a major challenge to fundraise for an organization within a university that doesn't have alumni," said William I. Brustein, former UCIS director who credits his partnership with Eileen for accomplishing this. "I was 35,000 feet in the air and she was on the ground making sure things got done, and never rattled by all the details. She had an amazing intellect and curiosity."
Stretching herself in another new direction, Eileen worked with University of Pittsburgh historian Marcus Rediker between 2014 and 2017 to help him produce and distribute the documentary "Ghosts of Amistad," based on his book about the 1839 rebellion on the slave schooner Amistad. "She was the engine behind the film's success," he said. "She butted heads with (University of Pittsburgh) administrators to ensure we could use my university funds to film in Sierra Leone. She worked on the script, came up with the title, handled our submissions to film festivals, ten of which selected us, and worked with specialists to add subtitles to the film so it could reach more people around the world. She deserved a lot of the credit when the film won the American Historical Association's John E. O'Conner Award as the best historical documentary of 2015."
Always a prolific reader who in recent years volunteered at Pittsburgh's City of Asylum Bookstore, Eileen was for many years a freelance book reviewer for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In a review of "The Goldfinch" before it became a bestseller, she wrote that author Donna Tartt "dares to create characters who wrestle (occasionally with great humor) with the 'big issues' of life, including the roles of fate and randomness in our lives, and how each of us must decide what is worth living or dying for."
Above all, Eileen prized friendship. She regularly rounded up friends to join her at the opera, theater and museums, all of which she loved, or go to yard sales or try something new, like kayaking, which she learned to do in her sixties. "After we gained confidence on the water, we shared many adventures at Keystone State Park, Moraine State Park and on the Allegheny River," said Donna Kell of Pittsburgh. "On the water, she was always smiling."
Eileen was predeceased by her brother Lawrence Weiner, the internationally known conceptual artist. She is survived by her sister-in-law Alice Weiner, niece Kirsten Weiner and grandnephew Henry, all of New York, and by a family of friends in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York, London and elsewhere.
A celebration of Eileen's life is being planned for later this year. Please check back after September 30 th for details.
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