Sidney M. Alpert ’40 died on February 11, 2018, in San Diego, California.

(The following was published by the Bangor Daily News on February 13, 2018)

Sidney M. Alpert ’40

Sidney M. “Sid” Alpert, 100, died peacefully on February 11, 2018 in San Diego, California. Sid was born on October 23, 1917 in Bangor, Maine, to Isidor N. and Mary Fine Alpert. He was a graduate of Bangor High School and an alumni of Hebron Academy, Bowdoin College, and a graduate of University of Maine. At the outset of WWII, Sid enlisted in the United States Army Air Force. After OCS he served as a B-17 aerial gunnery training officer, flying more than five hundred training flights and surviving two crashes that resulted in fatalities. While stationed in Iowa at the Sioux City Army Air Base he met the love of his life, Sonia Shaffer of Brooklyn, NY, whom he married after a ten day courtship in 1944. After the war, Sid and Sonnie returned to Bangor where they operated Priest Drug, and Broadway Sunset Drug, before moving their family to California in 1969. Sid returned to college where he earned his teaching credential in special education at San Diego State University and taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District until retiring in 1983. Sid and Sonnie returned to San Diego where Sid devoted himself to his passion for family and golf.

Sid was a kind man who was respected by his colleagues and deeply loved by his children and grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife of sixty-three years, Sonnie, in 2007, and sisters Katya Alpert Gilden in 1991, and Sylvia Alpert Cohen in 2013. He is survived by sons Harvey Alpert (Laura) of Los Angeles; Irvine Alpert (Bonni) of Seattle; Jordan Alpert (Debbie) of San Diego and Dedham, Maine; and daughter, Judi Sofer (Ben) of San Diego; and as well as eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Special thanks to Sid’s long-term caregivers, Debbie Way and Rocky Orozco who provided exceptional care for the past many years, and to Kaiser Hospice.