Bob Spivak, longest-serving president and chairman of Maccabi USA, honorary president of the Maccabi World Union, and business executive, has died at 85

Bob Spivak, 85, formerly of Philadelphia, the longest-serving president and team chairman of Maccabi USA, honorary president of the Maccabi World Union, 1989 U.S. Olympic Committee delegate, and retired principal with the CMS insurance and asset management firm, died Tuesday, May 24, of a blood infection at his home in Yorktown, Va.

Dedicated to enriching the lives of young Jewish people, Mr. Spivak served tirelessly as volunteer president of Philadelphia-based Maccabi USA from 1981 to 2001 and, among other things, doubled the number of competing athletes to more than 600, introduced comprehensive educational and cultural programs to the athletic agenda, created the JCC Maccabi Youth Games, and sent competitors for the first time to the Special Olympics.

Maccabi USA is a national nonprofit that sponsors and organizes Jewish American athletes to compete in the World Maccabiah Games, a two-week sports competition held every four years in Israel and known as the “Jewish Olympics.” Due to his record of “unprecedented growth” at Maccabi USA — more than 1,100 Americans competed in the 2017 Games — and “passion and dedication” for its athletes, Mr. Spivak was named president of the 2013 Maccabiah Games, the first non-Israeli to hold that position.

“When he liked something, he was 100 percent into it,” said Mr. Spivak’s son Michael. “And he brought everyone else on board.”

In 2014, Mr. Spivak was named honorary president of the Maccabi World Union, the international organization that oversees the Maccabiah Games, and officials cited his “outstanding service to the global Maccabi movement over many decades.” Yair Hamburger, then chairman of the union, called him “the exemplary model of a leader.”

Mr. Spivak first attended the Maccabiah Games as a volunteer in 1977 and saw not only the benefits American athletes gained by visiting Israel but an opportunity to expand the experience. “We saw that we could really build something very unique and special out of it,” he said in an online video.

So, in 1985, Mr. Spivak and others added a weeklong cultural enrichment program before every Maccabiah Games so American athletes could experience fellowship and learn more about their Jewish heritage and Israel as well as compete. “For him, it was always all about the kids making connections,” his son said.

Mr. Spivak won many awards during his nearly 50 years of service with the Maccabi organizations, including the Maccabi World Union’s 2001 Yakir Maccabi Award for “sustained and exceptional voluntary service.” He was inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2000 and Israel’s International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2001, and can be seen in several YouTube videos discussing his career.

He said his devotion to Maccabi USA was the result of “the love of sports, the love of kids, and the love of Israel,” and the Robert E. Spivak Leadership Award for Maccabi USA volunteers was created in his honor in 2001.

He was a member of dozens of sports, civic, charitable, and business organizations, and on the boards of many groups, including the Philadelphia Sports Congress, Hillel at the College of William and Mary, and the Central High School Board of Governors. In 1969 he joined Wynnewood-based CMS Cos. and worked there until he retired in 2013.

Born Dec. 30, 1936, in Philadelphia, Mr. Spivak grew up in West Oak Lane, graduated from Central in 1954, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Muhlenberg College in 1958. He was good at sports as a youngster, and, according to an amusing autobiography he shared with his family, played the role of a Christmas tree in the William Rowen School fifth-grade holiday play.

He spent summers as a camp counselor and lettered at Muhlenberg in soccer, baseball, and track, he wrote, “because no one tried out for those sports.” He worked in sales, marketing, advertising, and insurance at two companies before joining CMS.

He married Willa Cohen in 1958, and they had sons Michael and Greg and daughter Merri. After a divorce in 1971, he married Taylor Hogge in 1975.

Mr. Spivak was an exceptional golfer who played at Meadowlands and Woodcrest Country Clubs, Bala Golf Club, and elsewhere. He made friends easily, got along with practically everyone, had a sharp sense of humor, followed Philadelphia sports teams, and enjoyed cultural events with his wife and children.

“He liked to share his experiences with his family,” said his son Michael. “He was a mensch through and through.”

In addition to his wife, former wife, and children, Mr. Spivak is survived by five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, a brother, a sister, and other relatives.

Services were June 15.

Donations in his name may be made to Maccabi USA, 1511 Walnut St., Suite 401, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102, and Hillel International, 800 Eighth St., NW, Washington, DC 20001.