Sanford Shore

Sonny was born in Cleveland, Ohio on January 23, 1929 to immigrant parents, Benny and Shirley Smook. They spoke Yiddish and Hungarian in the house, so Sonny learned English when he began attending public school.

Sonny was the oldest of two children, his younger sister Ruth was born in 1931. He grew up in the Glenville neighborhood where he attended Oheb Zedek synagogue and graduated from Glenville High School in 1947. Although his mother wanted him to become a rabbi, Sonny went to The Ohio State University where he joined the Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity, studied business and accounting, and served as the manager of the 1950-1951 Ohio State men’s varsity basketball team. Due to a heart condition he was not allowed to join the military during the Korean War, so he enrolled in ROTC where he was a Marksman and a Sharpshooter. The friends he made at Ohio State remained his friends for his lifetime. He later earned his law degree from Cleveland State University (Marshall School of Law) and began a career as a practicing attorney in Cleveland, lasting 50 years.

While attending Ohio State, Sonny married the love of his life, Estelle “Eppie” Shore nee Susman, on November 30, 1952 and they spent 69 years together raising a family, touring the world, and devoting themselves to Israel and the Cleveland Jewish community.

Sonny volunteered for countless Jewish organizations, including serving as President of the Cleveland chapter of Magen David Odom (ARMDI) where he also served as co-chairman with Eppie. He served as President of the Brotherhood at Fairmont Temple. He served as a Big Brother at Bellefaire School.

Sonny had a lifelong love of sports. He and his Ohio State friends played softball in the JCC league for many years; and he and Eppie bowled weekly in a couples league and a men’s league where Sonny carried a league best 180 average. He and his friends were owners of Racquet Club East where he regularly played doubles tennis. He played basketball in an ‘over 50’ league. Sonny was a member of Hawthorne Valley Country Club where he played golf with his friends and his wife. He coached his sons in the Shaker Heights boy’s baseball little league. He loved taking his children to Browns, Indians, Cavaliers, and other professional sporting events.

Sonny was known best for his kindness, his intelligence, his dedication as a husband, father, grandfather, and friend, and his active support of his synagogue and his community. He had a great memory and would tell a story from many decades ago with amazing detail, only to conclude, “and the point to the story is…”. He was a proud alumni of his beloved Ohio State University, and happily watched from his nursing home bed as his Buckeyes won another national college football championship last month.

Sonny rarely missed a day without his beloved Eppie, and together they traveled the world, whether it was driving a station wagon full of children to Gettysburg and Washington D.C. or driving a sports car around the south of France or taking a cruise to Southeast Asia. They shared a love of music, regularly going to Chicago or New York to hear live jazz or to see a Broadway play. They shared their love of music, art, theatre, and travel with their children and grandchildren.

Sonny will be missed terribly and is survived by three of his children, Jeffery (Debra), Jeri, Michael (Amy), as his daughters Cari (Martin) Flox and Cydni Ann Shore preceded him, and further survived by his 6 grandchildren, Jessica (Peter Davis) Shore, Brandon (Kristen) Shore, Ben (Kristen) Flox, Solomon (Jacqueline) Flox, Zachary Shore, and Sara Shore, and his two great-grandchildren, Wesley Shore and Ava Shore.

Donations in his memory should be made to Mogen David Odom (ARMDI) or Forever Children’s Home.

Cards and notes in his memory should be sent to Jeri Shore, 4026 Bushnell Rd., University Heights, Ohio 44118.

Funeral services were held Thursday, February 6, 2025, at Berkowitz-Kumin Bookatz Memorial Chapel.

The family will receive friends on Thursday, February 6, 2025 from 7 – 9 p.m. and on Friday February 7, 2025 from 1 – 5 p.m. at 1021 Englewood Rd., Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44121.