Elaine Newman Moranz, 65, commercial real estate lawyer

Elaine Newman Moranz, 65, of Newtown Square, a lawyer who specialized in commercial real estate law, died of ovarian cancer on Thursday, Oct. 27, at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Trained as a city planner and lawyer, Mrs. Moranz had been a partner in the law firm Fox, Rothschild, O'Brien & Frankel since 1987.

"Elaine will be remembered for both her intelligence and integrity. She will be missed by clients and colleagues alike," said Mark L. Silow, managing partner at Fox Rothschild.

In 1991, Jana S. Paley hired Mrs. Moranz to handle a complicated transaction. "She made dealing with difficult bureaucratic paperwork look easy," Paley said.

"My father told me your lawyer should be family, and she was," said Paley, president of Ark Ventures Inc. and Ark Properties Inc., a real estate redevelopment and management company in Philadelphia. Mrs. Moranz became a close friend and a business partner, Paley said.

Ark Properties has redeveloped a number of apartment buildings in Center City.

Along with Paley, Mrs. Moranz and her husband, Joel Moranz, bought and renovated the Cornerstore Bar & Grille in Ketchum, Idaho. Built in 1884, the restaurant is on the National Register of Historic Places. Mrs. Moranz dealt with the numerous federal preservation regulations required to complete work on the building, Paley said.

In 2010, the Cornerstore received an honor award from the American Institute of Architects in Idaho.

A native of Clayton, Mo., Mrs. Moranz earned a bachelor's degree in 1968 from the University of Michigan, where she met her future husband.

The couple married in 1969 and moved to Philadelphia. He earned a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and she earned a master's degree there in city planning in 1970.

Mrs. Moranz worked for the Philadelphia Planning Department for two years and then for the Delaware County Planning Department, where she was executive director from 1976 to 1977.

After earning a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980, she joined the law firm Meltzer & Schiffrin, which later merged with Fox, Rothschild, O'Brien & Frankel.

Mrs. Moranz served on the board of the Pennsylvania Economy League, Eastern Division.

An accomplished tennis player since childhood, Mrs. Moranz later took up golf and was a member of the Green Valley Country Club in Lafayette Hill and the White Manor Country Club in Willistown Township. She and her husband enjoyed traveling and took several rafting trips out West.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by a brother; a sister; and eight nieces and nephews.

The funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, at Levine & Son, 2811 West Chester Pike, Broomall. Burial will be in B'nai Amoona Cemetery in St. Louis.

Donations may be made to the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation, www.sandyovarian.org.