Norma Yonover Podet

Norma Yonover Podet October 17, 1921 – December 12, 2006 Norma Y. Podet, 85, died December 12, 2006. A service will be held Friday, December 15 at 11:30 AM at Rodef Sholom cemetery. The family will be at Sabbath services that evening at 8:00 PM at Temple Rodef Sholom. Born 17 October 1921 to Celia Davis Yonover, M.D. and Nafthali Yonover, D.D.S., Norma Yonover Podet was a native of Chicago, Illinois. She earned the B.A. degree from the University of Chicago in 1942 and the M.S.W. at the University of Utah in 1958. Beginning her Social Work career with the American Red Cross, she continued it in the Chicago Court of Domestic Relations and later in the Veterans Administration Regional Office in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1949 she married Mordecai Podet. In 1954, the family – it now included a son – settled in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she was engaged first with the Children’s Service Society, then the Department of Psychiatry of the Salt Lake General Hospital, and thereafter at the University of Utah Bureau of Marriage and Family Counseling. She was also Consultant for the Utah State Prison at Draper, Utah and was elected to the Board of Directors of the Salt Lake Community Welfare Council. In 1961, the family – now including a daughter – moved to Florida where she served first as Senior Day Center Social Worker, then as Director of the United HIAS Service and the Cuban Refugee Center, all of Miami. The family came to Waco in 1964. Here she served as Social Work Supervisor and Director of Staff Development and Training at the Methodist Home 1965-74; Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Baylor University 1966-71; Director of the Waco Family Home Care Agency 1974-1985. Retiring in July, 1985, she continued to serve social and civic agencies as consultant and volunteer. She was among the founders as well as the first chairperson and a frequent program moderator of the Waco Interfaith Forum, organized in 1965 to bring together women of all faiths in dialogue for mutual understanding and the development of projects for community betterment. In 1965, as Health Chairperson of the Waco Parent-Teacher Association, she headed a drive for continuous health supervision of every Waco child, winning for the project the support of the McLennan County Medical Society, the Waco Dental Association, the Waco-McLennan County Health Unit, the City-County Board of Health, and the Children’s Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. She served on the Board of the Economic Opportunities Advancement Corporation 1967 and the Planned Parenthood Board 1975. As host/coordinator for the television program “Panel for Parents” 1976 she brought psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers before the pubic to respond to questions on parenting. She twice won elections for seven year terms of the Board of Trustees of McLennan Community College 1976-1990 and served as Board President 1984-86. In 1988 she was appointed to the Baylor University Committee On Protection of Human Subjects In Research. She appeared in many forums as lecturer, book reviewer, and panelist addressing social and mental health topics as well as representing Judaism. She was the University of Chicago candidate interviewer for this area and a frequent volunteer at the Waco Better Business Bureau. She belonged to Congregation Rodef Sholom. Her interests included the League of Women Voters, Hadassah, the Art Center of Waco, Cameron Park Zoo, Waco Conference of Christians and Jews and the Waco Family “Y”. Her husband, Mordecai Podet, is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Rodef Sholom and Jewish Chaplain at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System. After retiring, the Podets were frequent travelers in the United States and abroad. Their son, Ethan, resides in Houston with his wife, Irene, and children, Adam, Janine and Jonathan. Their daughter, Eve, resides in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband, Michael Finucane. The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our “Memorial Guestbook” at www.wilkirsonhatchbailey.com. Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey