OBITUARY

Attorney who championed arts, helped mediate Detroit bankruptcy dies at 85

Detroit Free Press

Eugene Driker, a prominent attorney known for dedicating time and financial support to cultural organizations, serving as a civic leader who helped mediate Detroit’s bankruptcy and being a proud and impactful alum of Wayne State University, died Thursday.

He was 85.

Driker was a lifelong Detroiter, with the exception of moving to Washington D.C., after law school for three years. His parents, Ukrainian immigrants who spoke Yiddish at home, raised their three children near Dexter Avenue and Davison Street in Detroit.

Driker often shared a story of his father telling him he could go to any college he wanted, as long as he could get there on the Dexter bus. That bus took Driker to what was then known as Wayne University, an institution he would later help lead.

After graduating from Central High School in 1955, Driker attended Wayne University, followed by Wayne Law School, later earning a master of laws degree at George Washington University Law School.

Married to his wife, Elaine, for 63 years, the couple raised their family in Detroit’s Green Acres subdivision and then moved to the Palmer Woods neighborhood in the mid-1970s.

Committed to the city he loved, Driker was selected as one of the mediators in the city's 2013 bankruptcy case. That mediation team successfully negotiated the resolution of the largest municipal bankruptcy in history.

“One of the reasons I threw myself into the bankruptcy so much was my own goal to make Detroit a place where my grandchildren would want to stay," Driker said, according to a Wayne State University tribute.

Driker played a key role in what became known as the "Grand Bargain," a deal that prevented the Detroit Institute of Arts collection from being sold off and mitigated cuts to city pensions by gathering $816 million in state and foundation funding.

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Known to be a gentle but formidable force for progress, Driker volunteered for a number of organizations, sitting on and chairing local boards.

“I think it was his best way of giving back to the city in which he was raised and just trying to make the world a little better,” Elaine Driker said.

Driker was active in the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and was a life trustee of the organization.

“He was very active at Wayne State University and its law school,” Elaine Driker said.

“He was on the Board of Governors for 12 years, chaired the Wayne State Foundation and ran a successful fundraising campaign for the law school, which enabled them to build a new building.”

Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson called Driker "a great friend to Wayne State University, and to me personally.”

“He was consistently generous with his time, intellect and support, yet modest about his accomplishments, which were many," he said. "He was devoted to Elaine and his family and friends. And he was proud of Wayne State, and we are proud to call him our own. His example inspires the entire Wayne State community.”

Driker and his partners founded Barris, Sott, Denn & Driker, P.L.L.C. in downtown Detroit in 1968 and have represented some of the largest corporations in the state.

Driker enjoyed being with family and loved music — he was a lifelong subscriber to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He loved art and loved maps, his wife said. It brought him great joy when one of his grandchildren majored in geography, she said.

She said her husband became a bicyclist in his later years, and six weeks before he died, he completed a 15-mile bike ride in Glen Arbor, Michigan.

Driker is survived by his wife, children Elissa (Jay Zerwekh) Driker and Stephen (Jennifer) Driker, son-in-law Perry Ohren and grandchildren Charlie, Caleb, Rebecca, Sophie, and Emma, who knew him as Zeyde.

A funeral will be held at Temple Emanu-El at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Brendel Hightower is an assistant editor at the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at bhightower@freepress.com.