'You don't replace Larry and Jane Glazer'
He was a major real estate developer — the company he founded, Buckingham Properties, today owning some of downtown's tallest skyscrapers. She started and ran a successful mail-order catalog company, QCI Direct. They had all the worldly trappings of great material success, from a 3,900-square-foot Brighton home to their own plane.
In life, Larry and Jane Glazer easily could have stayed in rarefied circles. Instead, they served on the board of public broadcaster WXXI; she was past president of the Jewish Community Center; and he was on the board of groups ranging from Monroe Community College to the Jewish Home of Rochester. And the Glazers' funeral service Tuesday brought people from all walks of life.
The crowd that packed Brighton's Temple B'rith Kodesh was, to be sure, a Rochester who's who of doctors, lawyers, politicians and captains of industry. But the mourners crowding the temple — which was packed to the point that cars were parked on lawns and Brighton police briefly had to stop traffic on Elmwood Avenue at the service's conclusion to let everyone out — also included people in their workclothes.
The Glazers "were such leaders in the community," said Sandy Parker, head of the Rochester Business Alliance, as she headed into the temple. "I'd hope there are people in this community who will keep his legacy and her legacy alive."
Hundreds also streamed into Irondequoit Country Club after the funeral services for a reception to pay their respects. More calling hours are scheduled from noon to 3 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Simultaneous with the funeral service, the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency on Tuesday approved a set of tax breaks for one Buckingham-proposed project — redevelopment of 739 S. Clinton Ave. into apartments and commercial space. At the start of the COMIDA meeting, board members held a moment of silence for the Glazers and for Rochester Police Officer Daryl Pierson, shot to death Sept. 3 in the line of duty.
Larry Glazer originally was from North Buffalo; Jame Glazer was a Brighton girl whose family owned a commercial printing company. He went to work for that company, and in the meantime started dabbling in real estate development. And they married 47 years earlier in the same temple that Tuesday hosted their funeral service.
Downtown Rochester, like downtowns across the nation, is a shadow of its glory days when it was the center of commerce. But Buckingham played a major role in its redevelopment efforts of recent years. "I think he saw things before other people did," said Rochester Downtown Development Corp President Heidi Zimmerman-Meyer.
Today, Buckingham owns downtown Rochester's Xerox and Bausch + Lomb towers, has redeveloped much of the former Genesee Hospital campus, and is a major player in reworking downtown's Midtown site.
Will his death will mean a long-lasting disruption of those works? "I'd prefer to think of (him) as having changed the community forever and creating a legacy other people will take on," Zimmer-Meyer said. "What Larry Glazer left behind is ... confidence and hope in the future of this place."
Rochester City Councilman Adam McFadden said he was not worried about the current slate of Buckingham projects. "Knowing Larry, he probably left infrastructure to see these things be successful."
But further down the road, that's when the community might start feeling the loss of a Larry Glazer, McFadden said: "It's one thing to do the nuts and bolts of a deal. To get people to see your vision. ... Even my last couple of meetings with him, he was showing me his drawings of Midtown, and made me a believer."
Don't look to some other developer to do what Larry Glazer's done, said Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy. "You don't replace Larry and Jane Glazer," he said just prior to the funeral service. "You can't. Nobody should expect any one person of firm to replace the likes of Larry and Jane. Nobody's had the impact on our community like Larry has in the last several years."
MDANEMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com