Trent D. Pendley is a fine jeweler, writer and an advocate for social justice. He became the President of The Indiana Jewish Historical Society in 2003 and is now serving his sixth term in office. He has been a member of the organization since he was age 18.
Trent has also served on the Board of Directors of UJA, JNF, Hillel-Arizona State University, Aviv, and the Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum in Greater Phoenix; The Greater Crown Point Chamber of Commerce, The Northwest Indiana Open Housing Center, The Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana and Temple Beth El in Odessa, Texas. He has also served in positions with the ADL, AJC, and B'nai B'rith. He is a member and board of director of Temple Israel in Miller Beach.
He is also on the ADL’s Upper Midwest Division’s Civil Right’s committee. He was a 1993 Leslie Wexner Heritage Foundation nominee; a columnist and former editor of the 'Illiana News.' He covered the historic Sadat visit to Jerusalem in 1977 when an Indiana University overseas studies student at the Hebrew University in Israel.
Trent has served as the Social Action chair of Temple Israel in Gary, Indiana and he is the Public Relations counsel to American Dream Realty in Crown Point.
His fine jewelry credentials of 26 years include positions with AGS store, Grunewald & Adams at the Arizona Biltmore; Gold Art Creations in Scottsdale; Barry's Jewelers in Odessa, Texas, and Carteaux, Inc. in Chicago and presently with Martin Binder Jeweler of Valparaiso. Jewelry and Gem training with GIA and Cartier. He is a Rolex Crown Club member.
He wrote the script to the 'FIRST WALK' a historic walking tour of a genteel turn-of-the 20th century neighborhood in his home town of Crown Point, Indiana and has given public readings of a 1930 novel by a local author, long forgotten, which had scandalized Ruffle Shirt Hill. In 1999 he commissioned the Wyeth-Hurd prodigy, David Rogers, to paint his 'Faces in Time' a cubist portrait of the 1878 Lake County Indiana Courthouse with cameos of Susan B. Anthony, John Dillinger, Tom Mix and Rudolph Valentino who had all visited the town's well preserved Victorian town-square.
In 2004 his paper “The Jewish History of the Indiana Dunes Country, 1830-1950” was published in Indiana Jewish History and the only issue to be sold out hereto. He earned the Indiana Jewish Historical Society an Indiana Humanities Council Grant in 2005 for their display on Northwest Indiana at the Cultural Connections II exhibit at the Indiana Welcome Center and for his “L’Dor V’Dor: Generation to Generation in the Indiana Dunes Country.” Trent’s display for the Cultural Connections III exhibit, “Soul of Region Women” and the IJHS’s “Women of Valor” earned a Genesis grant and has traveled to Munster, Beverly Shores and to Chicago.
He has also written a novel “Toys in the Closet” set in the very environment where he now maintains a resident in the Indiana Dunes. Trent resides in anhistoric English cottage, Musette Lewry, that had been built for the American Naturalist and Pulitzer author, Edwin Way Teale, in Furnessville; In 2009 The Indiana Historic Bureau will dedicate one of their 500 Indiana Historic Markers for Teale’s 110th birthday facing the home of this IJHS President.
Alan Gilbert of Fort Wayne has served as the First Vice President for three terms and has been on the board since 2004. Community activities include presently serving his second term on the board of congregation Achduth Vesholom in Fort Wayne. Alan is a past president of the Southwest Allen County School Board. Alan attended public schools in Gary, Indiana where his family was a member of Temple Israel. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University and Indiana University School of Medicine. Alan has a dermatology practice in Fort Wayne.
Joan Wolf of Indianapolis has served as the Second Vice President for four terms and since 2005. She joined the IJHS Board in 2004 as a liaison with Indiana Historical Society. Joan comes to the IJHS board with a wealth of experience and also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Indianapolis Opera House and is a trustee for the Indianapolis Museum of Art. She enjoys volunteering for Art Groups in Indianapolis, as well as Girls, Inc., and Methodist Hospital. Joan is a native of Madison Indiana’s historic Jewish community where she attended the public schools. She is an alumnus of Indiana University, Bloomington. She is married to Walter Wolf, and has four daughters and nine grandchildren.
David Piser, a life long resident of the Mishawaka/South Bend area, has been a member of the IJHS for many years and has served on the board since 2004 and has been the IJHS Treasurer for the past four terms and since 2005. David was a founding member of the Michiana Jewish Historical Society and is also their treasurer.
He has sat on the boards of the Jewish Federation of St. Joe Valley; YMCA of Michiana and as their President for two years; South Bend’s Sinai Synagogue, and Urban Youth Services Board.
A lifelong resident of Indiana, David attended Indiana University and also was honorably discharged from the Indiana National Guard after six years of service. He is the founder of Piser Enterprises in 1987, and retired when selling this company in 1998.
He was the treasurer of the B’nai Israel Reconstructionist Congregation in South Bend and with his late uncle, Mendel Piser, deeded the historic synagogue, erected by the Sons of Israel in 1901, to the Historic Landmark Foundation of Indiana in 2003.
David and his wife Dayle are the parents of two children and two-step children, and six grandchildren.
