Ralph Saul took the idea of serving his community very literally. When there was someone in need, whether he knew them or not, he wanted to help.
“Helping people was one of the things he really liked to do,” said son, Dr. Phil Saul, of Charleston, S.C. “I truly believe helping others brought him a tremendous amount of joy.”
Ralph Lewis Saul, of Alpharetta, died Thursday at Piedmont Hospital, from complications brought on by heart disease. He was 84. A graveside service was held Sunday at Arlington Memorial Park. Dressler's Jewish Funeral Care was in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Saul, who grew up in Lawrenceville, was heavily involved in his Gwinnett County community, where he ran a business, Saul’s Department Store; and helped build a school for mentally challenged children, the Hi-Hope Center.
In the 1960s, Hi-Hope catered to school-age children but had no permanent building, it was run out of a trailer, Dr. Saul said. His father got involved with the group, not because there was a need in their family, but because the community needed the school.
“This was before students were mainstreamed into the regular public schools,” Dr. Saul said. “And in 1970 dad used his position as president of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce to help them raise money for a state-of-the-art building.”
In 1973, Mr. Saul was asked by Rabbi Harry H. Epstein to help form a Jewish day school, and he did. When Atlanta’s Epstein School opened in 1974, Mr. Saul was not only a co-founder, but he was the school’s first president.
“He helped this school through its early years,” said Stan Beiner, Epstein’s head of school. “He, and the other founders, were very critical in helping to address the challenges that come with opening a new school.”
The school planned to honor Mr. Saul, and his contributions during a board meeting Monday night, Mr. Beiner said.
A few years ago, the school had a Founder’s Dinner, where those instrumental in establishing the school were honored. Mr. Saul was in attendance and spoke about feeling good about what the school had become.
“He was walking through the school, some 35 years later, seeing what was first a dream and now seeing the reality of a thriving, successful school,” Mr. Beiner said.
While education was very important to Mr. Saul, his family was most important. During the eulogy, Dr. Saul said “But the thing for Ralph is that although those of us related to him by blood or marriage were extremely important to him, his ‘family’ extended way beyond that narrow group.”
He’d married, and divorced, twice but managed to stay very close to his former wives. He even helped take care of his first wife, Phyllis Tenenbaum Cohen, the mother of his four children, during her illness.
Mr. Saul adopted people all over town, at his favorite hangouts, cafes and even the Waffle House across the street from his apartment.
The day after Mr. Saul died, his sons went on sort of a “memorial tour” of places their dad would frequent. It was an educational experience, Dr. Saul said.
“It helped explain to us why dad stayed in Atlanta despite none of his children being here,” he said. “In Atlanta, he found a ‘second family’ of sorts who in many ways may have needed him more than we did.”
In addition to his son, Mr. Saul is also survived by two additional sons, Andy Saul of Franklin, Tenn., and Alan Saul of Cairo, Ga.; daughter, Pam Greenewald of Alachua, Fla.; and a number of grandchildren.
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