Saul Wineman

Source:  The Jewish News
 

Saul Wineman, who graced the local airwaves for nearly five decades as "Paul Winter," had a flair for bringing everyday Detroiters into the mix of culture and ideas.

Mr. Wineman, 77, of Farmington Hills, succumbed Sept. 21, 2000 to lung cancer. For 30 years he was a fixture on public television in Detroit and was enjoyed by listeners of Top-40, talk and variety radio before that. His quarter-century teaching career brought the humanities to life for thousands of night and weekend students at Wayne State University.

"His style was a classy blend of wit, intelligence and boundless curiosity, sparked by a touch of irreverence," said Dan Alpert, station manager of Detroit's public television station, WTVS-Channel 56.

Mr. Wineman was gifted with a distinctive baritone voice and had an impulse for bursting into song, spoof or dialects, often with a sprinkling of Yiddishisms.

Forever the storyteller, he once dubbed himself the "Crown Prince of Smoked Fish," inspired by his childhood memories of riding with his father when he delivered the delicacy to the numerous delis in Detroit's old Jewish neighborhoods.

As an adult, Mr. Wineman would frequent his boyhood haunts at the Eastern Market, pick up a pickle at Samuels Bros. deli and, the teacher that he was, grade its taste -- say a B+ -- good, but maybe a little lacking in tartness or dilly quality.

Through his longtime friendship with Jewish Ensemble Theatre artistic director Evelyn Orbach, he helped found the company at the West Bloomfield Jewish Community Center and served on its board and its play-reading advisory committee.

Over the years, Mr. Wineman performed in Detroit theater, often working with Orbach. Two years ago, for his 75th birthday, he did a one-man show to benefit the JET theater.

"Solly was one of the most cultured human beings I've known, with a marvelous flair for whimsy," said Orbach. "He always had a direction that he took things that just delighted people, because it was always different from what you expected. He was very well read and always gave you something to think about."

Mrs. Orbach's husband, Cantor Harold Orbach of Temple Israel, officiated at Mr. Wineman's funeral Sept. 24 at Ira Kaufman Chapel.

Mr. Wineman earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy at the University of Michigan and was a classical music announcer at its radio station, WUOM-FM.

In 1952, he began 12 years with WXYZ-AM radio in Detroit, starting out with a format of classical, jazz, folk and show music, including the variety program, "Winter Wonderland." When the station's format changed to rock'n'roll in the late 1950s, he went with the flow, playing music like Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" on his noontime show, but also occasionally injecting philosophical or cultural references amid the ballads of teenage angst.

Then-nighttime disc jockey Lee Allen described Mr. Wineman's voice as "perfect, like none I had ever heard. We all tried to copy it."

Mr. Wineman left WXYZ in 1964 to do talk radio in Boston, but returned the next year to bring the talk-telephone format to Detroit on WTAK-AM, mixing it up with listeners on the issues of the day. In 1970, he joined Channel 56, but also did variety radio stints with WJR-AM and classical station WQRS-FM.

In the corridors of Detroit's public television station, where his cultural specials and station-break announcements earned him the title as the voice and heart of Channel 56, his exuberant baritone would sing over the public address system, when a simple "paging so-and-so" would have sufficed.

Channel 56 producer and friend Anne Patten said, "Solly was constantly upbeat and so much fun to be with." Her husband, Chris Felcyn, who also worked with Mr. Wineman at Channel 56, called him "maybe the only real Renaissance Man I've ever met."

Beginning in 1974, Mr. Wineman was an assistant professor of humanities at WSU's Weekend College (later renamed the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies). He attained emeritus status in 1992, but continued to teach, including philosophy courses at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn.

Prof. Francis Shor, a colleague at Wayne State's Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, said, "Solly brought to his classes an infectious zest for learning. He was a wonderful teacher because he was a trained performer. He never failed to sustain the students' attention."

"He was also someone with eternal curiosity about the world around him, albeit the material world didn't always interest him as much as the realm of ideas and stories about the past," Shor added.

Mr. Wineman was devoted to his wife Marilyn, and had great pride in his two daughters and six grandsons.

Daughter Lisa Friedman of Farmington Hills said, "My father was the same man in public that he was in private -- just as kind and caring as he was with his family."

His legacy, said daughter Judith Wineman of New York, "will be his contribution to the cultural community in Detroit. That, I think, will keep on going."

Saul Wineman is survived by his wife, Marilyn Wineman; daughters Judith Wineman of New York, Lisa Friedman of Farmington Hills; grandchildren Samuel Cooper, Joshua, Nicholas, Jacob, Daniel and Jesse Friedman; brother-in-law and sister-in-law Sheldon and Inez Klimist.

He was the dear brother of the late David Wineman.