Michigan attorney Michael Kramer, 82, put family and community first

If there was one thing that Michael Kramer, an attorney, philanthropist and prominent Jewish community member from Michigan, loved more than the Detroit Lions, it was his close-knit family and wide circle of friends.

“We would go to every Lion’s game and they were always really bad,” said Kramer’s son, David Kramer.

Despite the heartbreak of supporting a perennially losing football team, his father never saw the games as a waste of time, David said, because spending time watching the Lions with his family was the real win for him. 

“It wasn’t about football; it was the quality time spent together,” he said. 

Michael Kramer, who died on March 28, 2025 at age 82 after a battle with lung cancer, was born in Detroit to Hyman and Bernice Kramer and lived in Michigan all his life.

He was a popular student and a three-sport athlete at Detroit Country Day School, graduated from Miami University in Ohio in 1965, and went on to study law at Wayne State University —where in 1966 he met his future wife, Zina, then an undergraduate. They married two years later.

“I still remember he wore a blue, crew-neck sweater and called me four times before I would go out with him,” Zina said. “The rest is history.”

It was also bashert, she added, using the Yiddish word for destiny. 

Zina, who was born to Holocaust survivors in Europe after World War II, later learned that she and her parents had stayed in a hotel owned in part by Kramer’s parents after she arrived in Detroit as a toddler. And one of his aunts had kindly gifted her a yellow polka-dotted dress that her mother had inexplicably kept for many years.  

After law school, Kramer first practiced corporate law with his father, Hyman, before expanding the firm to Kramer Mellon. Later he practiced at the firms of Miro, Weiner & Kramer and then Dickinson Wright.

As he grew more successful professionally, Kramer expanded his philanthropic commitments. 

A lifelong member and supporter of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan, Kramer was also well-known for his support to many non-profit organizations in the Detroit-area, including Oakland Family Services, Gleaners Community Food Bank and the Jewish Federation of Detroit. He also served as chairman of the board of trustees for Oakland University and established the Michael Kramer Medical Student Scholarship.

A passionate golfer, Kramer also served as president of the Franklin Hills Country Club. A member for nearly 60 years, he enjoyed frequenting the golf course and dining there with family, friends and colleagues.

“He was such an incredible people person,” Zina said. “He was a connector and a collector of people but so authentic in those relationships.”

After Kramer’s death shortly before Passover, family members recalled with fondness Kramer’s love for the holiday.

“He would love to hide the afikomen but he would always hide it in the same place. So it became a game of who could run the fastest to the hiding spot,” David said.

Over the years the Kramers also supported numerous political campaigns, including hosting fundraisers at their home for Democratic gubernatorial and presidential candidates like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Gretchen Whitmer.

“Michael Kramer — generous and kind, fun and hilarious, a loyal citizen of America, a memorable person, a wonderful person,” said longtime friend James Blanchard, a former Michigan governor and ambassador to Canada, at the funeral service for Kramer on March 31 at the Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield.

“He was really the best,” said his daughter, Lisa Friedman. “He had a kindness and was a fun, loving human being, both as a father and a grandfather.”

Kramer was especially fond of coming up with unique, peppy nicknames for each of his four grandchildren. They, in turn, loved to share their many achievements with him, Lisa said, and he enjoyed attending their sporting events and reveled in his grandchildren’s accomplishments.

“Above all, family came first,” Lisa said. “He wanted us to laugh, to love and to make every moment count because that’s how he lived – with style, with heart and with humor.”     

Michael Kramer is survived by his wife of 56 years, Zina; his son David and daughter-in-law Anessa Kramer; his daughter Lisa and son-in-law Dr. Josh Friedman; grandsons Samuel and Max Kramer; granddaughters Sydney and Madison Friedman; and sister-in-law and brother-in-law Anita and Dr. Ralph Zicherman. A brother, James E. Kramer, died in 2006.