Sumner Z. Kaplan

Sumner Z. Kaplan (February 3, 1920 – March 20, 2011) was an American soldier, politician, and judge.

Kaplan served in the United States Army in World War II, and later continued to serve in the United States Army Reserve.

He later graduated high school at Boston Latin School, in 1939.

Two years later he graduated from Massachusetts State College.

Due to World War II, he served in the United States Army in the United States Corps of Engineers, eventually being promoted to the rank of colonel; after the war he continued to serve in the United States Army Reserve completing his military career with he rank of brigadier general.

During the War in 1944, he married Eleanor Fisher, who he initially met when he was 16 and she was 15.

After World War II he graduated from Harvard Law School, and practiced law.

Eleanor would go on to be an elementary school teacher.

Kaplan was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1954, and left after a failed run for the Massachusetts State Senate.

In 1954, he ran for the Massachusetts House of Representatives for Brookline, and won.

While in office he advocated for legislation for rent control, opposed anti-communism legislation, and opposed the death penalty.

Eight years later, he unsuccessfully ran for the Massachusetts State Senate, and his House of Representatives seat was filled by the election of Michael Dukakis.

In 1962, Kaplan had been reduced to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve, and was serving the role of chief of staff with the 94th Infantry Division.

In 1962, Kaplan ran the unsuccessful senatorial campaign for Edward J. McCormack Jr.; for this he was not on good terms with Senator Ted Kennedy.

He remained active in public office locally in Brookline, where he served in its town meeting and its select board.

By 1971, he was promoted to a general officer as he was assigned to become the deputy commanding general of 94th Army Reserve Command.

In 1974, he authorized the usage of two armored personnel carriers of the 187th Infantry Brigade by John Wayne during his 1974 visit to Harvard Square.

In 1974, his writings on the Israeli Reserves were utilized in a journal article on cadre in reserve units.

Kaplan was also a rabbi, officiating the wedding of the White House speech writer Richard N. Goodwin in 1975.

Kaplan was involved in organizing for pro-Israel demonstrations in Boston; he would travel to Israel yearly after a partner of his law firm moved there.

In 1982, a daughter of theirs, who worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, was married to a Columbia University history professor.

Later serving in local elected offices in Brookline, Massachusetts, he was appointed as a judge in 1983 remaining in that position for ten years.

The youngest of three children, Kaplan grew up in Dorchester and Roxbury.

In 1983, he was appointed a probate and family court judge by Governor Edward J. King.

Later, Kaplan served as general counsel to Merkert Enterprises of Canton, Massachusetts.

In 2004, a successful effort was made to have a park named for him in Brookline, it is located in a playground.

He moved to Jamaica Plain in 2010.

He died of heart failure, and lymphoma, on March 22, 2011, in Boston, Massachusetts at age 91.

Kaplan was interred at Sharon Memorial Park, Massachusetts, and was survived by two daughters, five grandchildren, and his wife of 66 years.