A 102-year-old man known as the patriarch of the Jewish community in St. Louis went missing this week and, as of press time, was feared dead.
On May 20, four days after witnesses saw an elderly man jumping off the Daniel Boone Bridge and into the Missouri River, authorities were still searching the river for Isadore Millstone after police found an unattended vehicle near the bridge that belonged to his caregiver.
Reports have surfaced that Millstone may have left personal notes to family members before he disappeared over the weekend. According to a statement issued by his family, Millstone suffered from anxiety and acute shoulder pain. The media have speculated that Millstone’s pain medication could have increased his anxiety and pushed him to commit suicide.
Millstone founded Millstone Construc-tion Co., which built office buildings, towers, stadiums, malls, bridges and highways. It also built numerous Jewish institutions, among them the new JCC of St. Louis, which sits on a 108-acre campus that Millstone handpicked during the 1950s. He has been a major supporter of many Jewish institutions in St. Louis.
Millstone’s first wife, Goldie Millstone, died in 1998 at the age of 90. The couple had two children, a daughter who died in 1977 at the age of 45 and a son who died in 2000 at the age of 64. Millstone’s second wife, Helen Millstone, died about a year ago. — st. louis jewish light