Royal Oak has an inordinate number of parks for a city of its size, and not one of them today is named after the man who spurred the effort to create so much green space in the community beginning in the 1930s.
That’s about to change Monday, when the city commissioners are set to officially change the name of the 14.5-acre Exchange Park, on North Campbell Road at Montrose Avenue, to Isabel and Myron Zucker Park.
Myron Zucker and his wife, Isabel, were both nature lovers in their 20s when they moved from New York to Royal Oak in 1929.
An electrical engineer, Myron Zucker had a master’s degree from Cornell University and went to work for Detroit Edison. He and his wife settled in a house on Crooks Road near 12 Mile Road.
The Zuckers lived in the city until the mid-1950s, but during that time Myron was active in Royal Oak and established the Royal Oak City of Trees Committee in the 1930s.
Information about the Zuckers came to light after Royal Oak recently approved a new city parks and recreation master plan, and the city’s community engagement specialist, Judy Davids, did research for a city Park Passport booklet.
“When you go back and look at how our parks got started, it always comes back to Myron Zucker’s initiative,” Davids said.
Laura Haw, a McKenna senior principal planner and consultant for the new parks master plan, said McKenna has written hundreds of recreation master plans for communities in Michigan and across the Midwest.
“Royal Oak has the most number of parks that we have ever inventoried” in a community, Haw said.
The tree committee that Myron Zucker spurred ran an annual tree planting each spring and fall starting in 1937. That effort continues to this day through the Department of Public Services.
Davids said that through the City of Trees Committee, Royal Oak has a tree canopy that has made it a Tree City USA, the only community in the state, along with Adrian, to be recognized since the program started in 1976.
Zucker and tree committee members established the precursor organization that became the city Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Advisory Board. They further lobbied and helped fund the first city parks plan, and managed 500 acres of land for parks and playgrounds.
One of the key reasons Royal Oak has 51 parks is that Zucker and other tree committee members set a goal that no child should have to walk more than a half-mile or cross a major road to reach a park.
As Zucker’s role in the city’s green history emerged recently, Mayor Michael Fournier said he thought a park should be named after him.
“When you do a deep dive into the history of our parks system,” Fournier said, “Myron Zucker’s name is inseparable from the parks we have today. He certainly was a visionary.”
Zucker was equally industrious in business and held many patents. He started Myron Zucker Inc. when he lived in Royal Oak. The company was later sold but operates under the same name in Sterling Heights. It supplies “power factor correction capacitors and harmonic filters to facilities concerned with utility costs, energy efficiency, and equipment performance,” according to the company website.
Isabel Zucker followed her passion for nature and penned a book, “Flowering Shrubs and Small Trees,” that was first published in 1966.
“It continues to be sought after by avid gardeners and is available through various booksellers to this day,” Davids said in a memo to city commissioners.
Fournier said he thought it would be a good idea to finally name a park after Myron Zucker’s in honor of his legacy to the city of how to thoughtfully use the land to everyone’s benefit.
“This mentality lives on, not just in our parks,” Fournier said, “but in our generation of leaders who have been maintaining the treescape in the community, and in making a more sustainable community that future generations will enjoy.”
Exchange Park, set to be renamed after Zucker and his wife, is one of the larger parks in the city. It was first known as Montrose Park, but renamed Exchange in recognition of The Royal Oak Exchange Club in 1962, which paid for some playground equipment there. Davids said there hasn’t been an exchange club in the city since the 1980s.
Currently used for youth soccer and baseball, the park also has tennis courts and a playscape.
The Zuckers are survived by four grandchildren who live in different states outside Michigan.
“We’re setting them up to watch the City Commission rename the park Monday via Zoom,” said Davids.
