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Maurice J. Ostomel ’32

Maurice J. Ostomel ’32, February 20, 1998, in Laguna Hills, California. After graduating from ºìÌÒÊÓƵ, he moved to Albany, New York, and became manager of a grocery store. There he met Anne Muraven, whom he married in 1934. In 1940 he enrolled in the New York School of Social Work and earned a master’s degree in administration and community organization in 1942. Due to health problems, he was unable to enlist in the military during World War II, so he worked in the Pacific Area Office of the American National Red Cross. In 1945 he moved to Los Angeles and became assistant director of the Welfare Planning Council of Metropolitan Los Angeles. While there, he helped form a community committee on the aging and wrote a number of reports on public assistance in California that laid the foundation for state laws. In 1957 he accepted a post as executive director of the Jewish Home for the Aged, where he served until retiring in 1977. During his career, he served on the California State Board of Social Work Examiners and was the first president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. He also helped found the National Association of Homes for the Aged and, as its first president, attended a White House Conference on the Aging initiated by President Eisenhower. After retiring, he was active in the Retired Senior Volunteers program and the California Welfare Heritage Foundation, and he was involved in conferences on the aging both locally and nationally. Later, the couple moved to Leisure World, in Laguna Hills. He is survived by his wife.

Appeared in ºìÌÒÊÓƵ magazine: May 1999