Grace Miller Moritz
MORITZ: Grace Miller Moritz of Pittsburgh, age 83. Grace was born in Long Island City, N.Y., the daughter of Benjamin and Violet Miller. Grace was the wife for 62 years of Silbert Moritz. She was the Mother to Howard (Nancy Burk) Moritz, Lowell (Paula Beal) Moritz, Ruth (Jim) Moritz Allen, and Susan (Tom) Moritz Roth. She reveled in being the grandmother of Alex (Joanna), Simon, Carl, Ben (Jullie), Hillary, Emma, Elizabeth, Izzy, Jacob, and stepgrandson Ben Berenstein, and the great-grandmother of Lydia Allen. Grace was the sister of Doris Levine, and a loving aunt. With four children at home, she earned her bachelor’s degree in teaching, and then her master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. Throughout her career, she employed her expert organizational skills to deftly manage many major studies and programs. She is a co-author of 22 published research papers. Grace touched the lives of many people when she became one of the first leaders of SOS, a bereavement group for survivors of suicide. She was the initial therapist at STAR, Services for Teens at Risk, a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania funded program for suicide prevention. She was a clinical interviewer for the Impact Study, examining the effects of sudden parental death, as well as a contributor to a study of youths exposed to suicide. She was an active member of Temple David in Monroeville, at one point co-coordinating the religious school, and later a member of Temple Sinai where she proudly became an adult bat mitzvah. Grace was a smart, strong, pragmatic person who seamlessly balanced the demands of being a housewife with those of a modern career woman. She was an expert at knitting, needlepoint and sewing. She had a passion for learning, travel, family, fashion, chocolate, peanut butter and scotch. Services at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Avenue, Shadyside on Thursday at 2 PM. Visitation one hour prior to services (1 – 2 PM). Entombment Homewood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in her honor can be made to the Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry, c/o JF&CS, 5743 Bartlett Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15217, or the charity of your choice.
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