Known as Information Guru to Doctoral Students at Case

Arol Shack may have been the most popular attraction of the doctoral program at Case Western Reserve’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

A 2004 student survey published in the Journal of Social Work Education last year ranked the 67 year old administrative assistant as one of the programs top strengths. 

The Beachwood grandmother who died on Feb 18th 2007, of complications following a heart attack spent the last 21 years as the first person Mandel School candidates met and the first person they sought when they needed help.

“She could look at you and tell if you had a headache” said formal doctoral student Joanne Riebschleger now an assistant professor at Michigan State University School of Social Work. “She always made sure we had fun things to do” She invited us to her home, she held our hand when we were worried about things, she had a way of believing in you that was very inspiring”.

Shack showed up at the airport when new students would arrive in town. She helped find them housing, jobs, food, and child care. If she didn’t have an answer for you, she made it a priority to find a suitable solution. 

“She was like the “information guru” said Riebschleger, “She was one of the most high quality people I have ever met. But I wouldn’t have crossed her, she was a nurturer, but you better be behaving yourself. She asked about your family, she wanted to see pictures of your grandchildren, she made it a more comfortable experience”. 

The Cleveland native who’s maiden name was Gold, spent her early years on the city’s West Side, where her father co-owned a hardware store.

Years later she would say that theirs was the only Jewish owned store in that neighborhood.

Arol was 9 when she moved with her parents and two younger sisters (Janet and Marjorie) to University Heights. She was a very popular student at Cleveland Heights High School where she graduated in 1957.

When her boyfriend was unable to come home from collage to escort her to a junior class prom, Arol took his suggestion and asked his friend David Shack to take his place.

“I asked her to my senior class dance one month later” David Shack said, her acceptance of his invitation resulted in the end of her previous romance. 

David and Arol married in 1960.

As an adult, Arol organized vacations and get togethers for her entire family.

“She was such a go-er and do-er” her sister Marjorie Falk said, “We belong to a Cousins Club” Arol’s the one. “Next month we’ll go out to eat”. And she would plan where we were going. She keeps people together like that.

Pictures taken on many road trips with her husband (David) and her two sons (Gregory and Howard), fill family scrapbooks. Many show them at their home at Lake Chautauqua in Western New York where they spent most warm weather weekends for decades.

“First we stayed in a 4 person tent, then an Airstream trailer, a mobile home, a condominium and finally a house with a gorgeous lake view “, her son Howard said.

Shack enjoyed the water and the Chautauqua area’s outdoor activities, but she especially appreciated it’s ballet, opera, art exhibits and lectures. 

“She was like this giant sponge” son Greg said, “she just absorbed everything she was able to do”.

She directed people from out of town who were working on their doctorates in Cleveland to the best the North Coast could offer.

“Arol was a world class concierge” her former boss Mark Singer said, “She had connections in Cleveland in everything you can think about” Not just “This is how you fill out the application” “This is where your dorms will be, she, from A to Z was able to accommodate what students needed. And she delighted in doing it. She didn’t see it as a burden, she saw it as a challenge”.

Shack always looked for and found the good in people.

“She empathized the best parts of people, Singer said, “and people gave the best parts back to her. It was really something  to see”.