Tributes

In memory of our mother and grandmother Sunny Glassberg (1918-2013).

Richard, Mary and Adam Glassberg

Bob, Sally, David and Emily Sands

We would like to designate our memorial donation to help provide an Orangutan Caring Veterinary Scholarship for a needy student in Indonesia.  Sunny supported many scholarships and this is a perfect use for our donation. With permission of the St. Louis Beacon, we are including some of their article about Sunny written by Gloria Ross of Okara Communications.

 Sunny and her husband Myron’s philanthropy will carry on through the Mysun Foundation beneficiary of her estate.

Sunny, whose generosity, along with that of her husband Myron, buttressed many of St. Louis’ proudest educational, civic and cultural institutions. They gave hundreds of single mothers and older adults a chance at a college degree. Sunny delightedly accepted the title of "the Turtle Lady."

She was so-nicknamed for "a little gem; that wonderfully whimsical Turtle Park," said Peter Raven, president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Turtle Park in St. Louis is a tiny sliver of Forest Park in St. Louis, detached from the park’s mainland. Populating the park are large and small turtles including hatching turtle eggs and a gracefully curled serpent wall are all suitable for climbing or sitting. Turtle Park’s largest denizens are big enough to "swallow" small children.

The living turtles that often found their way home with her children were Mrs. Glassberg's inspiration for the playground’s concrete replicas. She commissioned sculptor Bob Cassilly to fashion the creatures, and architect Richard Claybour to design the park.

Her 1996 grant transformed the once-lonely strip across Highway 40 from the St. Louis Zoo into a children’s wonderland.

Giving with gusto

When the World’s Fair Pavilion in St. Louis faced the wrecking ball, Sunny donated seed money to restore it, and set about helping to raise the rest. She dedicated the restoration to the memory of her husband Myron.

Turtle Park and the World’s Fair Pavilion were two of her best-known achievements, but there were many more.

Sunny supported a picnic pavilion at the Shaw Nature Reserve; contributed to the reforestation of Tower Grove Park, and established an endowed professorship at Washington University for its International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES). She recently partnered with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the federal government to purchase 438 acres along the Meramec River, near Pacific. This was a very special project for the family inasmuch as her husband Myron anonymously funded a successful lawsuit to save the Merimac River from commercial gravel mining. She was there for the dedication May 6, 2013 for the Myron and Sonya Glassberg Family Conservation Area.

Through gifts to the Scholarship Foundation, Sunny helped nontraditional students realize their dreams. "Sunny was the contributor to 10 major scholarships annually," said Faith Sandler, executive director of the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis. "She chose (the scholarships) very carefully with great social justice in mind. “All that she did, she did with great gusto and humility," Sandler added. "She was a wonderful woman."

Her scholarships went to students of veterinary medicine and engineering, women returning to school and St. Louis Public Schools graduates. She funded her first scholarship with the proceeds of her estate sales business, Sellers Unlimited.

Sunny supported the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, and encouraged people to visit its Holocaust Museum and Learning Center, "so that such atrocities are never allowed to be repeated."

Among the many other beneficiaries of her largesse are the Missouri Historical Society, YMCA, League of Women Voters the St. Louis Zoo, the Fullerton Arboretum and the Gallatan Valley Land Trust.  She volunteered with mental health patients at the old State Hospital and helped establish the Switching Post to benefit Miriam School.

Her efforts garnered many honors, including the 2012 Greensfelder Medal from the Missouri Botanical Gardens and the 2012 Older Women’s League’s Women of Worth Lifetime Achievement Award; the Individual Saint Louis Zoo Award in 2010, the Hiram W. Leffingwell Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and the St. Louis Woman of Achievement for Creative Philanthropy in 2007.

Sunny and Myron live on in the memory of her family and friends and through the works of their Mysun Foundation.