Jerome W. Sandweiss

As well-travelled, curious, and worldly as his friends knew him to be, Sandweiss happily lived most of his life within a three-mile radius that encompassed St. Louis’ West End, University City, and Clayton.

After graduating from University City High School in 1942, he attended the University of Chicago, where, as a student of political science, his mentors included the Fabian Socialist Herman Finer and the sociologist David Riesman.

Enlisting in the Army in 1943, Sandweiss rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant in the Counter Intelligence Corps,. He served in the Philippines and then, after the Japanese surrender, at Tokyo’s Sugamo Prison, where he guarded Gestapo chief Josef Meisinger ( “The Butcher of Warsaw,” later hanged on his return to Germany) and took depositions from Jose Laurel, occupation-era President of the Philippines.

Following the war, Sandweiss returned to the University of Chicago—first to complete his MA thesis on the new Japanese constitution, and then to enroll in the university’s law school, where he served as a managing editor of the law review and found time to author an original musical production, “Noah’s Lark.”

Returning to St. Louis, he took up a general legal practice with a specialty in tax and corporate law. His fifty years in practice included service on numerous corporate boards, most notably that of the Sigma-Aldrich Corp., which he served for 36 years. In 1959, he successfully represented St. Louis congregation Temple Israel before the Missouri Supreme Court, in a suit that confirmed the obligation of municipal zoning codes to permit free religious practice.

Sandweiss’s many community activities included service on the boards of the University City Public Library, COCA, the United Way, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and a term as president of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service. A natural teacher, he taught the Sunday School confirmation class at Temple Emanuel, as well as citizenship courses for the International Institute and political philosophy classes at Washington University’s University College.

Asked to name the proudest accomplishment of this productive life, Sandweiss always answered, “My family.” He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Joy Glik Sandweiss; his three children, Martha Sandweiss, Katherine (Gerald Richman) Sandweiss, and Eric (Lee Ann) Sandweiss; and his six grandchildren, Adam and Sarah Horowitz, Rachel and Maya Richman, and Noah and Ethan Sandweiss.

Private family interment. Memorial service Thursday, July 18, at 2:30 p.m. at Temple Emanuel, 12166 Conway Road, 63141. The family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, 8215 Clayton Road, 63117; Jewish Family & Children’s Service, 10950 Schuetz Road, 63146; or to the charity of their choice.