Aaron and Helen L. DeRoy married in Oil City, PA in 1902. Aaron was a dentist at the time, but the proliferating automobile industry piqued his interest. He turned from dentistry to automobile sales, opening Studebaker dealerships in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the Midwest. The DeRoys made their way to Detroit in the early 1920s where Aaron established the Aaron DeRoy Motor Car Company and was a Hudson and Essex automobile distributor. He was also the founder and president of the Michigan Automotive Trade Association.

Philanthropy was always important to the DeRoys. Helen helped those who were less privileged than she was by the giving of her time, skills, and resources. During WWII she “adopted” European families, brought them to the United States, and acted as a matriarch to their families, even knitting slippers for them and others in need.

Aaron’s philanthropic interests included serving on the board of directors of Bellefaire, the Cleveland Jewish Orphan Home, as president and honorary president of the Detroit Service Group (the fundraising division of the Jewish Welfare Federation), and as chairman of one Detroit Allied Jewish Campaign and as treasurer of another.

Though the DeRoy name may be familiar, most are unaware of Helen’s pioneering roles in women’s history and the automotive industry. When Aaron died in an automobile accident in 1935, it would have been expected at that time in history, for Helen to sell the business or hire a business manager. Instead, being a very bright woman with strong financial skills, she took over the operations of the company and her husband’s other business and financial interests. Helen may have been the first woman to run such a business.

Aaron’s business accomplishments, along with the success that Helen’s family had in the early oil industry, afforded Helen the ability to explore her philanthropic interests further. Mrs. DeRoy’s lead gift of the Aaron DeRoy Memorial to the Jewish Community Center at Woodward and Holbrook in 1939 was the largest in the history of Michigan for a Jewish communal purpose and represented Aaron’s interests in philanthropy and recreational activities. Helen served as a director of the JCC at that time and on other boards as well.

In 1946, Helen established the Helen L. DeRoy Foundation, when it was uncommon to have a family foundation. Though women didn’t keep their maiden name at that time, Helen used the first initial of her maiden name as her middle name. She was always insistent that she be addressed as Helen L. DeRoy in correspondence and articles. When she passed away in 1977 the DeRoy Testamentary Foundation was created and continues her good work to this day with a primary focus of improving the lives of those in the metropolitan Detroit area.