North Shore Death Notices: June 26 - July 2

The following death notices were added to funeral homes serving the North Shore area in the past week. Those homes have provided obituaries for some of those that have passed away recently. Patch offers condolences to their loved ones, links to their obituaries and notices of upcoming services below.

Wenben Funeral Home, 320 Vine Ave. in Lake Forest

Bernice Gregorio, 92, Lake Forest

Kelley & Spalding Funeral Home, 1787 Deerfield Road in Highland Park

Anthony John "A.J." Terry, 24

Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie

Ruth Taussig, 95, Wheeling
Service July 2

Leya Furman, 93, Skokie
Service July 2

Joseph Zoller, 76, Highland Park
Service July 2

Elinor E. Miller, 103, Winnetka
Service July 3

Sam Pinzur, 98, Glenview
Service July 3

Alyce Greenberg, 93, Skokie

Rochelle Phillips, 92, Skokie

Molly Hubbard, Northbrook

Donnellan Funeral Home, 10045 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie

Brian Wegg Bulger, 67, Glenview
Visitation July 1, Mass July 2

Judy Mullen née Beardslee, 76, Glenview
Visitation July 2, Mass July 3

Joan G. Schiller née Jacobs, 90, Evanston
Service July 5

Kay Gunn Barry, 95, Glenview
Visitation and Mass July 5

Robin Lee Grenier, 54, Wilmette
Service July 8

Lorena M. Maier, 100, Winnetka
Service July 13

Monika Franzen, 78, Evanston
Service July 21

Edith W. Webber, 98, Evanston

Sarkis S. Tashjian, 86, Wilmette

Dennis James Hammond, 82, Wilmette

Nancy A. Johnson née Werner, 80, Wilmette

Simkins Funeral Home, 6251 Dempster St. in Morton Grove

Gilda T. Schmiegelt née Ernst, 83, Morton Grove

Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd. in Wilmette

Ruth L. Aharon, 92
Service July 2

Michael Ross Folio, 61
Service July 2

Suzanne Fienberg, 89
Service July 3

Joel M. Dalkin, 87
Service July 3

Jacqueline Hoffman, 95

Edward Tanet, 94

Muriel Velen, 94

Norman C. Buxbaum, 88

Gary L. Greenberg, 88

Daniel H. Lome, 88

Darlene Sue LeVine, 77

Featured obituary:

Robin Lee Greiner died on June 11, 2018 in Wilmette, IL. She died of breast cancer and was 53 years old. Born in Pasadena, California, Robin Lee was the daughter of Normalee Tostenson Greiner and Dr. Alson Lee Greiner. After grade school in Fountain Valley, California, her family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she graduated from Indian Hill High School and met her future husband, David Schonberg. Robin loved her years at Smith College where she graduated in 1986 with majors in both economics and government. It was during her years at Smith that Robin developed her lifelong passion for social and economic justice. She credited her time as coxswain on the Smith crew team for giving her the deep activist voice she used while shouting so effectively in the many marches, demonstrations, and campaigns that remained a fixture throughout her life. Leveraging another lifelong passion, Robin earned college spending money making and scooping ice cream at the legendary Harrell’s in Northampton, Massachusetts.

In 1987 she packed her belongings into her beloved Honda Prelude and drove solo across the country to find employment in San Francisco. In short order, a smart executive customer plucked Robin from a job at Enterprise Rental Car and paid her to produce a list of socially responsible businesses in the Bay Area. It was through this project that Robin first learned of the great work being done by Working Assets Funding Service (now Credo Mobile), a firm that has donated over $85 million to progressive non-profit groups by donating 1% of annual revenues through offering credit cards, long-distance phone services, mobile phones and green energy. Compelled by their mission statement, she started as an unpaid intern hoping correctly that it would develop into a paid position. Thus began 14 years of incredible personal and professional development. In 1995 Working Assets sponsored Robin to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School. She returned with her degree in 1997, became Vice President of Marketing for Working Assets, and helped manage a period of explosive growth for the company.

During these many years in San Francisco, Robin continued to be highly politically active and a spirited volunteer for many causes. Starting on sidewalks with an ironing board as a table and sign-up sheets, she went on to become a board member of Infact/Corporate Accountability International, with whom she produced the 1992 Academy Award winning short documentary, Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment.

With her professional life in good stead, Robin found herself reflecting on her mother’s early death from breast cancer and felt inspired to make a bold life change. She reached out to her high school/college years friend and confidant David Schonberg. Robin started a phone call in 2001 with the sentence, “I don’t know exactly where you are in your life, or if this is really fair, but I’ve been thinking a lot about you lately and I have to tell you that I love you.” David, a bachelor in Wilmette Illinois, wasted no time telling her that he had been deeply in love with her for twenty years and had been sadly referring to her as “the one that got away”. They reconnected on a trip back to Cincinnati, and Robin proposed to her dear friend. Her love of David, and optimism regarding their new life together, gave Robin the strength to leave both her beloved Working Assets and the Bay Area.

Married in 2002, Robin and David decided to unplug from their professional careers and focus on raising a family. As both luck and planned parenting would have it, Benjamin was born in 2003 and Theodore in 2007. The family was a fixture at the community pool, town beach, and the many museums of Chicago. Robin loved her adopted city and, with David, created a family tradition of “get to know a neighborhood”day trips. These adventures included a review of the selected neighborhood’s historical significance, a visit to a local museum or point of interest, a walking tour, and a meal at a restaurant that represented the community. In this way, Robin became quite educated in the rich fabric of communities that make up Chicago. After approximately 10 years of playing hooky with David, Robin was itching to engage professionally with the city she had come to love.

In June of 2012, Robin became Chief Operating Officer of Accion Chicago, a non-profit committed to community development by bringing affordable small business loans to micro-entrepreneurs in Illinois and Northwest Indiana. She found herself once again a key player in the transition of a small company into a larger organization. She remained in this position until her death.

Robin played a central role in the creation of The Hatchery, Chicago, a non-profit food and beverage business incubator currently under construction and scheduled to open in late 2018. As Accion’s lead representative, Robin was involved in every aspect of the project, from its inception, to its name (“The Hatchery” was her idea), to the development of the countless investigations, committees, and public and private partnerships required to make it a reality. Robin’s vision was for The Hatchery to transform its West Side community and to provide countless local entrepreneurs with the means to turn their dreams into reality. It was a project of deep professional and emotional significance for her and will stand as a fitting capstone to a remarkable career.

Robin was also a longtime member of the Harvard Business School Club of Chicago and served on its Board of the Charitable Fund. By design, Robin’s professional and volunteer work grew directly from deeply held personal passions; even so, her work life alone does not paint the full picture of this extraordinary woman. Her radiant smile matched an unfailingly positive attitude, and drew so many toward her and into lifelong meaningful relationships. She was an avid reader of fiction and nonfiction, an admirer and patron of modern art, a lover of jigsaw and crossword puzzles, and a serious Scrabble enthusiast. But more than anything, Robin delighted in experiencing life’s big and little moments with her adoring family.

Not to be sidetracked by her eight years of cancer treatment, Robin executed a multi-year plan to enjoy travel with her husband and two young boys that included London and the Cotswolds, Paris, Buenos Aires, Hawaii, and numerous domestic trips visiting and celebrating with family in San Francisco, Cincinnati, and Boston.

Within two months of her passing, Robin and her family traveled to New Orleans where she played a part in her niece’s wedding ceremony, danced the evening away to a Louisiana brass band, and finished the evening dancing through the French Quarter as a part of a second line parade.

She is survived by her husband, David Hilary Schonberg; her children, Benjamin Castro Schonberg and Theodore Lee Schonberg, her father Dr. Alson Lee Greiner, her brother Eric Reed Greiner, and her sisters Diana Yvette Greiner, and Emmalee Clair Greiner, and many other dear friends and family.

A memorial service will be held on July 8 at 1:00 p.m. at The Michigan Shores Club, 911 Michigan Avenue, Wilmette, IL. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions in her memory may be made out to Accion Chicago, Inc. and mailed to Accion Chicago, c/o Jackie Etchingham, 1436 West Randolph Street, Suite 300, Chicago IL, 60607 or made online here.

via Donnellan Funeral Home

Last week: North Shore Death Notices: June 19 - June 25