In addition to being co-namesake with wife Barbara in establishing the Alpert Jewish Community Center (Willow St. @ Grand Ave.), his (their) generosity created an endowed chair in Jewish Studies at CSULB and supported Long Beach Hillel, Jewish Family & Children's Service, the CA Conference for Equality and Justice and Temple Israel just to name a few.

We observed Mr. Alpert's quiet generosity firsthand when he showed up incognito in December 2006 for a community Christmas Party at 14th St. Park (between Chestnut Ave and LB Blvd.) The event, attended and supported by First Lady Nancy Foster alongside then-newly elected Mayor Bob Foster, distributed roughly 1,800 Christmas presents (a new book and toy for every child) organized by Better Balance for Long Beach. We recognized Mr. Alpert and wanted to take a picture of him for inclusion in our news coverage...and he declined. "We'd like to credit you," we said. "Nah, I only did a little," he said [although we learned later it was more than a little] and he instead credited Nancy Foster [who also did more than a little.]

We're sure many of our readers can recall experiences of this type with Mr. Alpert, in addition to enjoying with their families the many educational and cultural programs (and excellent exercise facilities) at the Alpert JCC. Feel free to share your remembrances with us below as you wish.

We're told services will be held at 12:30 p.m. Friday June 13, 2014 at Mount Sinai in Tanach Chapel, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles 90068 (323) 469-6000.

LBREPORT.com sends our heartfelt condolences to the Alpert family. Further to follow.