Beverly L. Steinman, a schoolteacher who brought patience and caring to her classrooms, died Wednesday at Otterbein Sunset Village in Sylvania Township. She was 92.

She had dementia, her daughter, Caryl Liber, said.

Mrs. Steinman, formerly of Sylvania and West Toledo, taught in the Toledo Public and Washington Local school districts. Career options for women were few when she enrolled at the University of Michigan after graduating from Scott High School at age 16.

“She knew she wasn’t going to be a nurse,” Mrs. Liber said. 

She had a minor in mathematics and, at age 20, received a bachelor’s degree in education from UM.

“It turned out to be her calling,” Mrs. Liber said. “She loved children and really loved that kind of 7-to-10 [year old] age group. She called them the honeymoon years. They were self-reliant, but sweet and eager to learn. She was nurturing and caring and patient as a teacher. She really did believe that education was the key to success — kind of a tradition in our Jewish culture — and she really wanted her students to feel like they could truly be successful.”

A longtime member of The Temple-Congregation Shomer Emunim, Mrs. Steinman taught second grade in Sunday school for years at Collingwood Avenue Temple, as the congregation was known when she started. She also served as Sunday school principal, a role she continued as the congregation moved to Sylvania Township.

She also was a part-time substitute teacher for area districts, including Sylvania and Ottawa Hills.

Former students, from public school or Sunday school, frequently greeted her while she was out and about.

“She really did have a big impact on people,” Mrs. Liber said.

Mrs. Steinman later became a real estate agent with a specialty in home sales for the Danberry Co. and Cavalear Realty. With her math background, she’d long liked the idea of being in business.

“Becoming a Realtor appealed to her sense of being a business and still using her people skills,” Mrs. Liber said. “She had an impeccable sense of taste, whether her clothes or her decor. Matching people up with the kind of home that would make them happy was a great joy to her.”

The uncertainty of real estate sales proved exhausting at times, but she met that challenge — and most others. 

“My mom was a force to be reckoned with,” daughter Debra Tilley said. “If she wanted something, she went after it. She was driven, but also sweet and loving and funny.”

“She just loved people. She had a way about her, and our friends always liked her,” Mrs. Tilley said. 

She became a life master in bridge, played tennis, and read voraciously.

“She was very liberal, progressive politically, and passionate about it,” Mrs. Liber said. “She really was so intelligent and analytical.”

She and her husband, Samuel, enjoyed travel — to Europe and several times to Israel. They and their circle of close friends had raised their families at the same time and later enjoyed going to dinner and socializing.

She’d been active in Jewish women’s organizations, including the National Council of Jewish Women, Women's American ORT, and Hadassah.

She was born Dec. 16, 1930, to Sylvia and Max Manoff, grew up on Fulton Street, and attended Fulton School.

“She was a child of the Depression and had very strong memories. They were poor,” Mrs. Liber said. 

Mrs. Steinman’s father was a salesman and her mother worked at Tiedtke’s Department Store downtown. 

“She had an after-school job from the time she was 12 years old,” Mrs. Liber said. “She had a younger brother she took care of. She got dinner on the table. It was an age where you grew up fast.”

She and Samuel Steinman married June 15, 1952. He died Dec. 5, 2020. 

Surviving are her daughters, Caryl Liber and Debra Tilley; five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Graveside services will be private. Arrangements are by the Robert H. Wick/Wisniewski Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to support Israel through Jewish Federations of North America via the Jewish Federation and Foundation of Greater Toledo at jewishtoledo.org; Temple Shomer Emunim religious school fund, or to the charity of the donor's choice.

First Published October 14, 2023, 4:00 a.m.