By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
In many ways, it was Althea who was the soul of the Stroum family, the matriarch who with her late husband planted the philanthropic seeds of Seattle’s Jewish community, and whose name can be found engraved on the Seattle area’s cultural landscape. Althea Stroum died on March 14, just days after the 10th anniversary of the loss of her husband, Samuel. She was 88.
Both Althea and Sam Stroum were known for their philanthropy, and those charitable values were simply a given in their family.
“I believe that both of us did get the values instilled by our parents,” said Cynthia Stroum, one of Althea’s two daughters and a former U.S. Ambassador. “It runs through the family. It wasn’t something that we really thought about — it just was.”
“They passed on how and why they felt it was important to give to the community to other people that weren’t Jewish,” Marsha Glazer, Althea’s daughter, said of her parents. “No matter how much you have, you can always give to another person.”
Joyce Rivkin, Althea’s niece, said family came first for Althea.
“She always had a very positive attitude about everything,” said. “That’s something that I noticed about her and tried to incorporate in my life.”
With only 14 years between Rivkin and Althea, the two participated in many activities together, especially after Sam died.
“She loved to go to the theater and opera and dance, and she would always take me there when I was young,” Rivkin said, “and we did those sorts of things toward the end of her life.”
Sometimes family extended beyond her actual family, as well. Daniel Weiner, senior rabbi of Temple De Hirsch Sinai where the Stroums were longtime members, said his relationship with Althea extended beyond that of rabbi and congregant from the moment he arrived in Seattle a decade ago.
“She was kind of like a surrogate grandmother for me and for my children,” Weiner said. “Althea really reached out very warmly and intently to me and to my family early on, so that even though they were older when I got here, I really had an incredible opportunity to develop a personal and warm relationship with her, and her with my family.”
Scott Noegel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Washington, was a Hazel D. Cole fellow in the 1990s, a Jewish Studies doctoral or post-doctoral fellowship at the UW named in memory of Althea’s sister. Noegel said that the Stroums were a big reason his family settled in Seattle.
“The Stroum family were just so warm and welcoming to myself and to my wife,” Noegel said. “We became good friends over the years.”
Althea Diesenhaus spent her early years in New York. At the calling of her sister Hazel and Hazel’s husband, who had moved to Seattle a year before, Althea, her mother, and her other sister Julia moved out in the mid-1930s. In the 1940s, at a Jewish USO dance, Althea met Samuel Stroum. The two were married soon after. Though money was tight in the early years, as Sam’s fortunes grew, so did the couple’s commitment to philanthropy.
“They grew up poor, and wanted to give back,” said Cynthia Stroum.
After her father’s death 10 years ago, Cynthia said her mother made a conscious decision to keep going with her life.
“Sometimes widows just sort of stay at home and wither away,” she said. But with Althea, “there were more reported sightings than Elvis: Tap dancing here or at the symphony or at the opera.”
Cynthia called her mother’s passing the end of an era. Seeing her mother’s friends at the memorial service on March 17 was “reminiscent of a very different time in Seattle,” she said.
But the Stroums’ philanthropy, like many of their peers, was both a team effort and a way of life.
“They were active in the Jewish and non-Jewish community, but they always cared about the Jewish community first,” said Richard Fruchter, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. “They were emblematic of that era of givers — they were titans of their time.”
And with that generosity, Althea exuded a tangible warmth wherever she went.
“When she walked into a room, you just knew it,” Fruchter said. “She would always tug my arm and tell me the latest joke that she had — and they were always funny — and she always had a gleam in her eye.”
Friends and community members said Althea kept her social calendar full and continued to attend Jewish communal events. She could be found at benefits for organizations that ranged from Hillel at the University of Washington to National Council for Jewish Women to the Federation to the Jewish Studies Program at the UW, which was recently renamed for the Stroums, to the Jewish Community Center, which also bears the Stroum name.
“We would enjoy the opportunity to get together with her at events, and to hear about her great-grandchildren,” said Paul Burstein, the former Jewish Studies chair. “She was just clearly a very good person, a very pleasant person, the sort of person that you would want to spend time with.”
The program’s current chair, Gad Barzilai agreed.
“She was always smiling. Always after events, it was important for her to come to me and say, ‘Wow, it was terrific,’” Barzilai said. “For me it was impressive when somebody at the age of 84 or 85 or 86 would come to the events and then look for me to tell me she enjoyed it.”
Judy Neuman, CEO of the Stroum JCC, echoed those sentiments.
“Althea was a very special member of the SJCC family. She attended and enjoyed many of our programs like our Jewish Touch series, annual meetings, Circle of Friends luncheon,” Neuman said. “Whenever Althea walked into the ‘J,’ she brought with her a sparkle and an ease that made all of us working here feel special and a part of her extended family.”
It was because of Althea that Henry Friedman, unable to create a library of survivor testimonies on his own, went forward to become a founder of the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center in 1988.
“Not only did she suggest that I start it, she said, ‘Look, we’ll be there for you, with money.’” Friedman said. “She had the foresight to encourage other people to do things, and this I felt we lost with Althea.”
Years ago, a luncheon attended by former UW president William Gerberding and regent Bill Gates, Sr. honored Althea for the annual Stroum lecture series, which brings Jewish scholars to campus to speak about their areas of study. Several books that resulted from those lectures were put on display.
“The pride that she felt in the outcome of support that [the Stroums] were giving to the Jewish Studies Program in the UW Press was really palpable,” Burstein said. “Having the books there as physical objects…evoked very strong feelings on her part, and you could see that.”
Though the family heavily supported the UW, a scholarship for students that the Stroums created for Sam’s hometown of Waltham, Mass. awards full tuition to Brandeis University to four graduates of Waltham High School each year.
“Although Sam Stroum did not himself have a college education, he and Althea were committed to making the dream of a college education possible for others. They believed in sharing their bounty and making the world a better place,” said Nancy Winship, Brandeis’s senior vice president of institutional advancement.
“I will miss Althea very much, but the Stroum name will live on in perpetuity at Brandeis through the dozens of Stroum Scholars who have benefited from their generosity.”
Althea Stroum leaves behind her two daughters, Cynthia Stroum and Marsha Glazer, son-in-law Jay Glazer, three grandchildren, five step-grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Remembrances can be sent to the Sam and Althea Stroum Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington or the Stroum Jewish Community Center.