Blanche Caron (Mesiboff), 99, passed away peacefully in her home on March 3, 2023, surrounded by family members, one month before her 100th birthday.
Blanche was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on April 8, 1923, the youngest of four, of Samuel and Fannie Mesiboff. As an honors student and a high scorer on the N.Y. Regents Exam, Blanche won a full college scholarship. While at Hunter College during WWII, she sought and was selected for special training to work at Bell Laboratories where she became part of a team to develop radar systems and other electronic equipment used in the war effort, including systems to detect enemy vessels in the New York City harbor and to protect the coast.
After the war, her college sweetheart, Herbert Caron, returned from his military service and the two married. The couple began their life together in Cambridge, Mass. where Herb completed his doctoral studies in psychology. The family relocated with their four young children to Arlington, Va. for Herb’s work and then to Parma, Ohio, where they lived for 63 years.
Mrs. Caron did research on extending viability in premature low-weight infants, a joint project of Case Western University Medical School and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital of University Hospitals. She was an active member of Beth Israel — The West Temple, where she volunteered in the library and helped manage a lending library for the general public. She volunteered her efforts for Cleveland Fair Housing as a tester to uncover racially discriminatory housing practices, “shopping” for apartments that were being denied to Black families. Blanche also helped develop and implement programs that promoted diversity and religious tolerance in the greater Cleveland community.
Blanche was a music enthusiast. Since their earliest days together, she and her husband loved to sing and listen to music. They enjoyed an extensive and diverse record collection that spanned classical, jazz and blues, and American folk and international folk traditions (now called World Music)—a love of which she shared and nurtured in her children. She encouraged and supported each child in taking private instrumental lessons.
Blanche had a lifelong love of reading and learning. As an adult, she took part in Hebrew Ulpan classes so that she could read and understand Hebrew from the prayerbook and the Torah, as well as modern Hebrew. In her 40s, she took courses in computers alongside college-age classmates and excelled. Blanche especially took pleasure in reading to her grandchildren and in watching her great-grandchildren and grand nephews and nieces grow and develop, knowing that she had fostered a love of reading and learning in them, too.
Blanche was predeceased by her husband of 76 years, Herbert S. Caron; her sisters, Rose Eigen and Evelyn Ross; and her brother, Milton Macy. She leaves behind her children, Chaim Caron, Wendy Caron Zohar, James Caron and wife Amy Richman, and Peter Caron and wife Kelly; grandchildren, Woody and wife Cathleen, Alissa and husband Kinal, Nadav and wife Alyss, Yotam and wife Natalie, Laila, Matan, Alex, Anna, and David; and her great-grandchildren, Marley, Wolf, Ara, Amelia, Conan, Kiri, and Fiala.
Funeral service for Blanche will be held on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 11 a.m. EST at the synagogue Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, 270 State Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230, followed by burial at the Ahavath Sholom Cemetery on Blue Hill Road in Great Barrington. A traditional light meal of consolation will be held at Hevreh following interment.
Shiva will be observed at the Caron Richman family home on Tuesday 5-7 p.m., Wednesday 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., and Zoom shiva on Thursday 6-8 p.m.
For those wishing to make a contribution in loving memory of Blanche, donations may be made to Beth Israel – The West Temple, 14308 Triskett Road, Cleveland, OH 44111, or to support the music programs at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, 270 State Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230. To send remembrances to the family, please visit the website of Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home.
