It is with deep sadness that we tell you that Brit Tzedek member and activist, Sid Lezak, died on April 24th after a short illness. Sid became active in Brit Tzedek about 3 years ago. He co-taught our class at the Jewish Community Shul two years ago, participated in legislative visits, and hosted a fundraiser for us with his wife Muriel, as well as adding his unique personality to our chapter meetings. For his 80th birthday last year, Sid threw a roast which was also an auction fundraiser for Planned Parenthood. Sid and Muriel offered a cross-country ski trip as their contribution. We hadn't seen much of Sid in the last months, not because he was ill but because he and Muriel were off seeing the world after her retirement. His illness was mercifully short for him and shocking for the rest of us. Sid was a great guy and we will miss him enormously. We are attaching his Oregonian obituary below. A memorial will be held at the Portland Hilton Ballroom Thursday, May 4 at 5:30 pm.

The Oregonian

Longtime U.S. Attorney, Sid Lezak, Dies At 81
By Joseph Rose

Sidney I. Lezak, a decorated World War II aviator who moved from the Midwest to become a gregarious giant in Oregon civics and the country's longest-serving U.S. attorney, died Monday. He was 81.

Lezak, who was on a hiking trek in New Zealand with his wife just six weeks ago, died at the Hopewell House hospice in Portland.

David Lezak said his father, U.S. attorney for Oregon under five presidents from 1961 to 1982, had been having difficulties with speech and movement. "There were signs of neurological degeneration," his son said, adding that the cause of death remains undetermined.

A liberal Democrat who worked hard to keep politics out of his office, Lezak tried to balance his opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1960s with his duty to prosecute draft dodgers as Oregon's chief federal law enforcer.

When he could, Lezak got young men who refused to go to war into a diversion program or sentenced to community service.

In the 1967 case of Reed College student and resister Robert Wollheim, who served five months in an Arizona prison, Lezak kept in touch with him and actively supported his admission to the State Bar in 1983. Wollheim is now a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals.

"He went out of his way for me," Wollheim said. "There was no reason to do that. I was just another kid opposed to the war. But he was always a decent human being, and he wanted to do what was right."

Highlights of his varied community activities included his service as president of the City Club of Portland (he resigned from the position in 1972 over the club's refusal to admit women as members), trustee of the Foundation for Public Broadcasting and commissioner on the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission.

He also served on the boards of the Nature Conservancy and Planned Parenthood.

Lezak was born Nov. 8, 1924, in Chicago. He and his wife, Muriel, grew up in the apartment building her parents owned.

During World War II, he served as a navigator on B-17 bombers flying out of England. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.

After the war, he returned to Chicago. There was a dance. Muriel was there. "It was my father's mother who suggested Sid ask Muriel to dance," David Lezak said.

Married in 1949, Sid and Muriel wanted to "experience the frontier," David said. He had a freshly printed law degree from the University of Chicago. They wound up in Portland, where Sid Lezak specialized in labor law and became an active campaigner for Democratic candidates.

Although he represented lumber and saw mill unions, he made no secret of his disgust with the corruption and mobsters in the Teamsters. "He caught the eye of Bobby Kennedy," said Robert Weaver, a Portland lawyer who viewed Lezak as a mentor. Weaver was an assistant U.S. attorney under Lezak.

President John F. Kennedy appointed Lezak U.S. attorney in early 1961. When President Nixon was elected in 1968, Lezak sent his resignation to Washington. Nixon wouldn't accept it. Lezak stayed.

Since leaving the U.S. attorney's office after the election of President Reagan, he dedicated his career to creative dispute resolution. Until a few weeks ago, he had been involved in the mediation of priest sex abuse cases against the Archdiocese of Portland, David Lezak said.

Besides David and Muriel, who recently retired as a professor of neurology, psychiatry and neurosurgery at Oregon Health & Science University, Lezak's survivors include two daughters, Anne and Miriam, and eight grandchildren. A memorial celebration will be at 5:30 p.m. May 4 at the downtown Portland Hilton.

In one of David Lezak's favorite stories about Sid, his father isn't even in the room. About 10 years ago, David went into a Portland gun shop to buy a shotgun for duck hunting. The man behind the counter realized he was dealing with Sid Lezak's kid.

"He prosecuted me once," the man said.

David got nervous. "Here I am surrounded by weapons," he said. "But the next thing out of his mouth was: 'What a great guy.'"