Adler, Seymour J. "Sy"
Seymour J. "Sy" Adler, his late wife Barbara Adler, nee Fingold, and all three of his daughters are Masters Degreed Social Workers and he fully expects a goodly number of his 12 grandchildren will also go into "the family business".
A native Chicagoan, Sy earned his B.A. at Northwestern University and received his M.A. at the U of Chicago School of Social Science Administration. It is here he met his wife of 46 years, Barbara. A Korean War Veteran U.S. Marine Corps Officer, Sy began his career as a juvenile officer with the Cook County Sheriff’s Police, worked for the welfare department and put in 10 yrs as a U.S. Probation & Parole Officer for the Northern District of Illinois. Sy moved on to become Director of Youth Guidance, a teen counseling agency; then, Crt. Services for the Juvenile Court of Cook County.
After 11 yrs as a Dir. of Methodist Youth Services, Sy escaped from Chicago to become Social Service Program Manager for the Kenosha County Dept of Social Services in 1985. In 1991, he moved up to the directorship of DSS and its’ successor, the Kenosha County Dept. of Human Services. In 1999, he moved on to coordinate Kenosha YES, a juvenile justice planning project for the Department.
After he retired in 2002, he continued in a volunteer capacity as Kenosha Liaison for the Wisc. Council on Children & Families, a statewide child advocacy organization. Under his leadership Kenosha County was recognized for its outstanding juvenile justice programs by the American Public Welfare Association in 1990 and by the National Governor’s Conference in 1993. Kenosha’s innovative Job Center received the Jobs Program of the Year award from the National Alliance of Business in 1992. Sy was the past president and an active member of the Ex. Committee of the IL Academy of Criminology.
He received the prestigious Morris J. Wexler award in 1975, President’s Award in 1997, and was celebrated for his contributions to the Academy at a dinner in his honor in 2004. A recipient of the Meritorious Service Award from the Chic. City Colleges in 1968, Sy also received the Distinguished Service Award from the Criminal Justice Council of the National Assoc. of Social Workers (NASW) in 1978. He was also honored by the Kenosha County Foster Parent Assoc, in 2000.
Sy served on the Committee on Inquiry (Ethics) and Nominations & Leadership Committee for the Wisc Chapter of NASW in 1978. He also chaired the NASW Chicago Dist. He was also honored by the Kenosha County Foster Parent Assoc. in 2000. Sy served on the Committee for the Wisc. Chapter of NASW and was a chairperson of the Ethics Committee in his home town of Twin Lakes, WI. Sy has written articles for Federal Probation Quarterly, Police Law Quarterly, and regularly contributed to the "Voice of the People" in the Kenosha News. In addition to serving on the Carthage College Social Science Advisory Committee, the Kenosha Coalition on the Homeless, the Concerned Citizen’s Coalition, Holiday House, and Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth, Sy was a long-time member of the Kenosha Branch of the NAACP, which honored him with an award of appreciation in 1999, and a service award in 2003. Sy was a tireless worker on behalf of the NAACP principles and authored a state grant for Kenosha to study disproportionate minority of confinement of minority juveniles. He served on the committee overseeing implementation of the project, on a County mental health advisory committee, on the Children & Fam. Services Permanency Planning Review Panel for children in out-ofhome care, on a volunteer agency review team for the United Way of Kenosha, and was a member of the Board of Directors of Kenosha Area Fam. and Aging Services.
He is survived by Susan Adler (Ian Elfenbaum), Karen Adler (David Marder) and Michelle (Curt) Morrison; grandfather of Samuel and Michael Hoke, Charlotte Elfenbaum, Danielle, Jeremy, and Elijah Marder, Julia, Sarah and Wes Morrison, Oliver, Ceci and Amelia Elfenbaum.
Service Fri. August 23rd at 11:00 a.m. at West Suburban Temple Har Zion, 1040 N. Harlem Avenue, River Forest. Interment Westlawn Cemetery at 1:30 p.m. Contributions may be made to Youth Guidance, 1 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL 60602, www.youth-guidance.org. Arrangements entrusted to Lakeshore Jewish Funerals, 773-625-8621.