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Obituary

Preserving Hyde Park character was key

MELICENT BRAMS: 1932-2004, But the 72-year-old community activist wasn't against change if developers enhanced the neighborhood.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published July 2, 2004

HYDE PARK - Until her funeral Sunday, even her sons didn't realize how much Melicent Brams meant to so many people.

"Obviously, she had a big impact on me and my brother," said her son Eric Weinstein. "But one thing we heard over and over after the funeral was, "Your mom was such a role model to me.' I heard it five times from five different people. Some of them I knew, and some of them I didn't."

Ms. Brams, who died June 22, 2004, at age 72, was probably best known locally as a dedicated community activist. At the time of her death, she was vice president of the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association.

She had become a member of the association two years ago and immediately became one of its most active members.

"She very quickly became my right arm," said association president Jeanne Holton Carufel. "She was tireless, and she would never back down from her principles."

Ms. Brams, Carufel said, was a key figure in efforts to maintain the traditional character of Hyde Park, starting with the successful battle to block a proposed Publix supermarket.

But she wasn't against change and development in the neighborhood, Carufel said. Ms. Brams was known as a friend and ally of developers whose work enhanced the neighborhood.

She had a special fondness for the old Wonder Bread plant in Hyde Park and was excited about the new owner's plans to convert it into condos while preserving the historic appearance. The developer had even asked her to chronicle the transformation of the building through photography.

"I think that's one of the things she'd regret, that she didn't have the chance to see that through," Weinstein said.

Many people who knew Ms. Brams through her work with the neighborhood association didn't know that she was also an accomplished photographer. Her work ranged from almost journalistic studies of familiar Tampa scenes to ethereal artistic works that she manipulated electronically. Some of her work was on exhibit in June at the downtown library.

Although she was a forceful woman who fiercely stood up for what she believed in, she was low-key about her accomplishments.

"So many people right here in our condominium complex have come up to me and said, "I had no idea she did all that, the photography and everything,' " said her close friend Meredith Ross. "There was a lot of depth to her. She had a lot of elegance. It's going to leave a terrible void."

Ms. Brams had separated from her husband while their two sons, Eric and David Weinstein, were still young. She went back to her maiden name and was essentially a single mother who guided her sons with a firm but even hand.

"She was a disciplinarian, but she was very fair," Eric Weinstein said. "You always knew where you stood with her. We always had a great relationship, even when she being a disciplinarian."

While she was raising her children, she was also maintaining a successful 28-year career as a high school health teacher in Cherry Hill, N.J.

"There wasn't anybody who didn't respect her," Eric Weinstein said. "I have friends who were students of hers, and they still tell me how much she meant to them."

Ms. Brams came to Tampa 10 years ago to be with her sons Eric, an executive chef, and David, a lawyer. About the same time, she was diagnosed with a melanoma in her eye.

She battled the cancer, but a decade later, it returned.

It was only weeks ago that Ms. Brams felt ill enough to see a doctor. After some tests, she was told she probably had a few months to live. Further tests caused doctors to revise the prediction.

"We were totally unprepared for that, to be told it was going to be just a couple of weeks," Eric Weinstein said. "We had thought we had much longer."

One of Ms. Brams' first reactions to the news was regret that she had so much unfinished work to do, Carufel said. Later, she told friends that she had led a full life, and the 10 years since her original cancer diagnosis had been a blessing. She had gotten to know her three grandchildren, the oldest of whom is now 7.

"One of the last things she said to me," her friend Ross said, "was that she had done everything in life that she wanted to do."

[Last modified July 1, 2004, 11:26:08]