Obituary: Meyer Garber, 83

Meyer Garber passed away peacefully Tuesday, May 26, 2015, at the home he shared with Claudette, his wife and friend of 56 years, in Sandy Springs. He was 83 years old.

Meyer was born and raised on the south side of Atlanta, attended Adair Elementary School, and graduated from Brown High School. He was a standout high school basketball player who also played with Atlanta’s own Devoted Sons of Israel, the 1948 national championship Young Judaea basketball team. He was recruited on a basketball scholarship to Duke University and played on the freshman team in 1950-51. Meyer was an Air Force ROTC cadet while at Duke and completed a 27½-year career in the U.S. Air Force, including a combat tour in Vietnam and Laos, retiring as a colonel in 1985. Much of his Air Force career was in training and education, and he assumed a Jewish lay leader role in almost all of his assignments. Upon retiring to Melbourne, Fla., he operated a very successful real estate business with Claudette and was active in the Jewish community there, serving for three years as president of Temple Beth Sholom, a large Conservative synagogue. Meyer and Claudette recently moved to Atlanta to be closer to family.

Meyer was a loving husband, a devoted father, a terrific listener, a trusted adviser, a complete mensch, and a true-blue Duke basketball fan who rejoiced this year in the men’s team’s success. He was always a very humble man, in spite of his accomplishments, and was infinitely approachable, with a sympathetic ear and words of encouragement for everyone he met. He faced all of his many medical challenges with spirit, often telling his doctors, “If you find it, you fix it.”

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Meyer Garber was preceded in death by his parents, Yetta and Morris Garber, and his brothers, Karl, David and Sam Garber, of blessed memory. He is survived by his wife, Claudette Garber; his children, Mitchell (Michele) Garber and Yvonne (Steve) Katz; and his grandchildren, Robbie, Samantha and Evan Garber and Joey and Shayna Katz.

Please sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services will be held at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, May 28, at Crest Lawn Memorial Park with Rabbi Joshua Heller officiating. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Meyer’s memory to the B’nai Torah Capital Campaign. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.