Heinz Gelles, died January 12, 2013 at age 87.We lost our beloved father and grandfather, Heinz Gelles, To those who knew him, Heinz was brilliant, charming, funny – a true force of nature with all its implications. He had an internal strength unmatched by most others of his generation, and while those who knew him well loved him with a passion, he could also drive his closest family members, friends and colleagues a wee bit crazy at times. He often claimed that “Gelleses don’t get ulcers, we give them.” He deemed worry to be “a useless emotion” and lived his life to the fullest. Heinz was a Bronze Life Master in Bridge, a member of the ACBL since 1973 and of the Vancouver Bridge Club in recent years. He was a graduate of Yale University (class of 1947) after surviving Nazi Austria as a child and coming to the US at age 16 parentless and without a working knowledge of English. He learned enough to join the Marines who, impressed by his language aptitude, trained him to interpret Japanese. They also sent him to Yale University where he graduated in two and a half years. He thrived in his adopted country, finding the risks of the business environment undaunting compared to that which he had already survived. With his wife Rose Rogul Gelles, who cared deeply about social justice, he made giving back to his community and doing good works for friends and as an educational publisher, the hallmark of his personal and professional life. Hard work was his nature. He co-founded the Gelles-Widmer Company in the 1950s, and was later an executive with Webster Publishing and McGraw-Hill. In 1973 he founded Phoenix Learning Group and served at its helm until recently. In 2004 Heinz moved to Holladay Park Plaza in Portland, Oregon after 30 years in St. Louis, followed by two exciting years in Singapore with McGraw Hill and another 30 years based in NYC as the founder and CEO of Phoenix Learning Group (PLG). In his later years with PLG he split his time between NYC and St. Louis, but with the loss of his wife of 55 years, his “Raisela,” and the need for a series of medical interventions and surgeries, was convinced by his daughter and son-in-law to move to Portland, Oregon, to attend to his health. With that move he became a caring member and occasional attendee of Shir Tikvah Congregation in NE Portland and a resident at Holladay Park Plaza. Born in Vienna, Austria in 1925, the only son of Josef and Erna Gelles, Heinz had the good fortune at age 16 to be one of the oldest and last children to be included in what has come to be known as the Thousand Children transport, a partnership of US Jewish philanthropies that rescued and resettled unaccompanied or orphaned Jewish children to the US to escape the horrors of the Holocaust. Knowing only one person in the US, a school friend from Vienna who had fled Vienna six months earlier and had family in St. Louis, Heinz asked to go there, was placed in a foster home in June 1941, and met his wife to be, Rose Rogul, at a Habonim Zionist youth group meeting on his first night in the city. He enrolled at Soldan High School, but dropped out when he turned 18 (in 1943) to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps where he was granted US citizenship upon completion of boot camp. After a battery of standardized tests the Marines sent him for Japanese Language training and he served as an interpreter before being pulled from his platoon as they headed for Iwo Jima. As a Private First Class, the Corps, taking hierarchy very seriously, offered him the option to remain with his platoon and be given a field command upon landing, or to attend college and in that way earn his stripes. He wisely chose college and earned his degree with honors from Yale University in 1947. He was a lifelong supporter of public libraries and education, Jewish philanthropy, Israel, and the Democratic Party. Heinz is survived by his son Joseph Gelles and daughter-in-law Mia Buchwald Gelles, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and their children Noam and Shani as well as Joseph’s daughter Ruth Link-Gelles; Erna Gelles of Portland, Oregon, and her husband Alan MacCormack and their children Hannah and Benjamin MacCormack-Gelles; and Jeffrey Gelles of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his wife Sharon Gornstein and their children Sarah and Rebecca. A memorial led by Shir Tikvah Rabbi Ariel Stone will be held at Holladay Park Plaza at 7 PM on Monday January 14, 2013. A funeral will follow at Berger Memorial Chapel in St. Louis on Wednesday January 16 at 11 AM. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Shir Tikvah Congregation of Portland Oregon or the Oregon Holocaust Museum. Berger Memorial