Gerald E. Naftaly: "Mr. Oak Park"

FOR CLOSE TO FIFTY YEARS, THE NAME OF GERALD E. NAFTALY HAS REMAINED NEARLY SYNONYMOUS WITH THE CITY OF OAK PARK.

He is well-known in local circles because he has spent most of his adult career serving the city. In fact, his drive to bring about change and progress in his hometown has been so strong that both current and former residents often refer to him as “Mr. Oak Park.”

Naftaly moved to Oak Park from Detroit at the age of two. While growing up, he had no idea that his love for the city would ensure his status as a local fixture for years to come. Some of his favorite pastimes as a child were sledding down Hamilton or Oak Park Hill, ice skating on an outdoor rink, and playing sports with his classmates and friends. Throughout the year, the public library and community center provided other recreation activities and amusements in which he could partake.

“One of my favorite games was playing Monopoly,” he says. Over and over, he played board games with family and friends to build his competitive skills and amass make-believe properties and money.

IN HIGH SCHOOL, HE DISCOVERED OTHER OPPORTUNITIES that would prepare him for his future aspirations. Adept at playing the saxophone, he joined the marching band, made new friends, and competed in talent competitions locally and nationally. He also formed a stock club at age 16. According to the directors of the National Association of Investment Clubs, his stock club had the youngest members on record at that time.

“In my free time,” Naftaly says, “I read books on history, especially ones on John F. Kennedy, and I went to a lot of concerts at Pine Knob and Meadowbrook.” For his listening pleasure, he gravitated toward the Motown sound.

For role models, he looked up to his brother Bob and Uncle Sam, who were accountants at the Geller-Naftaly Firm in Oak Park. Because of Naftaly’s increasing interests in working with numbers and exploring profitable investments, he got a job there working part-time while still in high school. He imagined that he would eventually follow in the footsteps of his brother and uncle.

WHILE ENROLLED AT WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, NAFTALY PUT HIS BUSINESS SAVVY TO USE when the country experienced an energy crisis in the early 1970s. The prices for gasoline and other precious commodities shot way up. The situation made it difficult for people to afford to go to work and buy the essentials. He contacted the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) and talked with the bus route supervisors about setting up a nearby park and ride. After listening to his idea, the company installed an Oak Park stop with a suitable schedule that would shuttle him and others directly to Detroit and back at a reasonable price.

“More than just local residents were pleased,” he says. The Oak Park mayor and city council gave him a special certificate of appreciation.

After receiving his accounting degree in 1975, Naftaly found work at the investment firm Paine Webber. However, his interests were shifting toward activism and community service. Striving to accomplish more than better public transportation for his community, he decided to run for city council at age 23. Although he lost, he ran again and was elected to the council in 1977. For the next 14 years, Naftaly served with his eyes and ears always open to the concerns of the Oak Park residents.

SETTING HIS GOALS EVEN HIGHER, NAFTALY RAN FOR MAYOR AND WON IN 1991. He had had the backing of the incum-bent mayor and the current council. In his new role, he immersed himself in City planning and attended countless recreation and ethnic advisory meetings.

Looking back at that period, he says, “I’m especially proud of my participation in the neighborhood groups. It helped me to learn what was going on throughout the city and facilitate improvements and changes. I’ve always believed that the job of a good mayor is to hear directly from the public.”

During the next 20 years he stayed in office, he also officiated many weddings. The number of couples he united was 306.

WHEN HIS MAYORSHIP ENDED IN 2011, NAFTALY ALLOWED HIMSELF TIME to reflect on his accomplishments — of which three deserve special recognition. As a leader always looking out for the security of others, he saw the potential of establishing a Michigan State Police Post on Ten Mile Road, between Coolidge and Greenfield, where there was an empty strip of land. It took five years of his lobbying two different state governor — Blanchard, then Engler — to make it happen. Because of his perseverance, the proposal came to fruition in 1996.

Another of his achievements was the building of a new municipal complex for the city. The buildings comprising the old complex — the Library, City Hall, District Court, and Community Center — were in desperate need of repairs and remodeling. Addressing the need, he sprang into action by raising bonds and lobbying the Obama White House for grant money. In 2013, the project was completed on time and approximately $500,000 under budget from the original projection of $6,000,000. The council named it the Gerald E. Naftaly Municipal Complex to honor him.

A third achievement was his obtaining the necessary funds in the mid-1990s to fix a large crumbling stretch of Eleven Mile Rd. The deteriorated section began at the Greenfield intersection and ran eastward until it ended at Woodward. The roadway passed not only through Oak Park, but through Berkley and Huntington Woods as well. Although the other two cities’ portions of Eleven Mile were much larger than Oak Park’s, neither of the other two communities had enough municipal money to cover their shares of the expense.

Just like when he was younger and wanted his team to win a challeng-ing ball game, Naftaly stepped up to the plate to compensate for the shortfall. By lobbying several prominent politicians at the time—Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, Governor John Engler — for financial assistance, he got the job done.

ONCE HE WAS RETIRED, NAFTALY OCCUPIED HIS TIME with more than just reflecting on his prior achievements. He took on new endeavors. Between 2011 and 2012, he often spent long periods in front of his computer screen, typing the manuscript for what would become a history book on Oak Park. As he drafted the chapters, he employed the writing strategies he had learned from some of his cherished high school and college instructors. He felt he was finally fulfilling a destiny: “You are going to be a writer,” the scores on a high school aptitude test had once predicted.

There is a backstory to how he became an author. In 2010, the Oak Park Public Library director was contacted by a representative from Arcadia Press (a national publisher) seeking someone to write a book on Oak Park for its Images of America series. The director knew the perfect candidate. He called Naftaly to tell him about the opportunity, and Naftaly jumped at it.

The runaway success of his Oak Park book (selling out on Amazon within days) prompted him to write another. This time, his subject matter was the now-demolished Northland Mall, in Southfield. The project elicited many fond memories. The mall had opened the same year he and his family had moved from Detroit to Oak Park. It had been a place where he and his friends and family had shopped and hung out during his childhood. Some of the former store owners had been his clients when he had worked at the Geller-Naftaly and Paine Webber firms.

To tell the Northland story, he devoted countless hours to interviewing former store owners and their relatives. He gathered photos from them and other sources (such as the Southfield city offices) to illustrate the text.

LIKE HIS PREVIOUS WORK, IMAGES OF MODERN AMERICA: NORTHLAND MALL was a tremendous hit, becoming the #1 new release when it appeared on Amazon in the summer of 2016. Because of the book’s popularity, he unveiled a new and expanded version a few years later. It now contains 50 more pages of photographs and memories of the mall. He has also added details about the plans to revitalize the site to the second edition.

In 2019, he obtained the copyright to Esther K. Meeks’s 1959 children’s book entitled The Hill That Grew. As a child, he had enjoyed reading this classic about Oak Park Hill, which he and other youngsters had used for sledding. His beloved community had created the hill out of the dirt left over from various excavated basement sites during Oak Park’s post-World War II housing boom. He republished the book himself with the original drawings, but he added newspaper articles and photos about the hill from 1959-2019 to enhance the story. The book sold well. The Midwest Independent Publishers Association recognized his triumph by presenting him with a “Finalist Award.”

ONE DAY, WHILE CLEANING HIS HOUSE, NAFTALY CAME ACROSS AN OLD BUSINESS CARD in a drawer for a Frankenmuth company that helped people design board games. Naftaly believed an Oak Park board game would complement his historical book on the city. He contacted the business owner Bill Colter, who helped him put the game, Oak Park-Opoly, into production.

From all the enthusiasm that Oak Park Opoly has received, he decided another filled with images and references to Northland would be the perfect follow-up. Northland-Opoly came out just before Thanksgiving.

“The publishing of the books and games have kept me very busy” with signing events and speaking engagements, he says. Word-of-mouth has also helped to create a substantial buzz about his works. Many shoppers have embraced them as gift ideas for the upcoming holiday season.

To purchase any of Naftaly’s books or games, visit his website jerrynaftaly.com. Or you can email him at gnaftaly@att.net.