Momentum - Summer 2012

Eli Rubenstein: In
the service of others

by Gary Sullivan

In the 1930s, Eli Rubenstein’s uncle was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. “At that time a lot of people in the U.S. had no idea what MS was,” Rubenstein says. “My grandparents wound up taking him all over the country just to get him diagnosed.” Rubenstein’s uncle had what would now be recognized as primary-progressive MS. He passed away a few years after being diagnosed.

“My uncle’s MS was always
in the background as a kind of
a reference point,” Rubenstein
explains. “He and my father had
been very close.” Some 20 years
later, Rubenstein’s father was
also diagnosed with primary-
progressive MS. Rubenstein
was just five years old. “My
father did not experience a
lot of disability or suffering,”
Rubenstein remembers, “but he
died shortly after diagnosis.”
His father’s illness and
passing had a profound effect
on Rubenstein. “At the time,
we lived in a small suburban
neighborhood outside of
Washington. Everybody knew
our family. The National MS
Society would raise funds with
a little hope chest that you
would take door to door and
ask people to help fill. I decided
that was something I really had
to do. And it was probably very
compelling to open the door
and have this kid standing in
front of you like that.”

Another diagnosis

Fast-forward 20 years again, to the 1970s. Rubenstein was completing work toward his law degree from New York University when he received word that his sister had MS.

“Her MS, though progressive, was less aggressive than our father’s and uncle’s had been,” Rubenstein explains. “She lived for another 15 years after the diagnosis. During that period I watched her trying to cope with what this disease threw at her every day. As her condition steadily grew worse, it gave me insight into what it must be like to live with MS, and it has fueled my desire to make whatever contribution I was able to make over the years.”

The making of a
board chair
While starting
a family of
his own and

Incoming National Board Chair Eli Rubenstein
is one of the National MS Society’s most
dedicated lifetime volunteers.

Time

launching a successful legal
career, Rubenstein donated
frequently to the Society, though
he didn’t have much freedom to
volunteer. That didn’t happen
until 1980, when he was
approached by an acquaintance
who knew about his family’s
history. “I thought it would
be manageable to serve on the
board of what would become
the Society’s Greater New
England Chapter—and it was
something I was compelled to
do.”
Rubenstein’s passion turned a
handful of volunteer hours into
a virtual second job. He served
as the Chapter’s board chair
from 1994 to ’96 and joined
the Society’s National Board
in 1998, the same year he won
the Norman Cohn MS Hope
Award. Since then he has served
on two CEO search committees
(he chaired 2011’s) as well as a
number of important strategic
task forces. He was inducted
into the Society’s Volunteer Hall
of Fame in 2007.

“I see this kind of giving as a
way of learning who you really
are,” he says.
Or, as Ghandi
put it, “The
best way to find
yourself is to
lose yourself in
the service of
others.”