Kay Glasser receiving the Women in Leadership and Philanthropy's first recognition award in October 2007. Photo courtesy of the Herald-Tribune.

The late Kay Glasser, a member of the National Association of Social Workers, experienced grief that would have defeated others. Her only child, a daughter, died of a brain tumor at age 15. She was widowed twice.

Yet Glasser, who earned a master’s degree in psychiatric social work from the Simmons College School of Social Work and a doctorate in planning, research and mental health from Brandeis University, never stopped helping others.

In 1990 she  founded the  Glasser-Schoenbaum Center, a one-stop social services agency in Sarasota, FL. Glasser called the 13-building complex, which offers child protection, legal aid, mental health and other services, a “campus of caring.”

“In most people’s lives, things can happen sometimes that make it difficult for them to function,” she said in 2000. “That’s what this place is about, helping them get back on their feet and become productive again.”

Glasser died Monday, just a month short of her 92 birthday. You can read a moving tribute to her at the Herald-Tribune by clicking here.