Ruth Ann Lobo was a longtime advocate for breast cancer awareness and the mother of basketball great Rebecca Lobo.
05.19.2000 | The Republican file photo by Don Treeger | SOUTHWICK – Ruth Ann Lobo of Southwick holds a framed poster of the breast cancer research stamp, presented to her during the grand opening ceremony for the new Southwick post office.SOUTHWICK – Ruth Ann Lobo was remembered Tuesday as a “wonderful person” by several town officials who worked with her during her tenure on the School Committee here.
Lobo, a longtime advocate for breast cancer awareness and the mother of basketball great Rebecca Lobo, died Tuesday following recurrence of cancer.
“She was just a wonderful person,” said Selectman Russell S. Fox. “The entire family was very nice and active here,” said Fox, who was instrumental in honoring Rebecca Lobo for her basketball skills as a student and player at Southwick-Tolland Regional High School and then at the University of Connecticut in the early 1990s. The town named the street leading to the high school ‘Rebecca Lobo Way.”
“What a wonderful person. It is a shame,” said School Department administrative assistant Kathleen Lynch.
“Ruth Ann Lobo was a staunch supporter of education,” Lynch said, specifically noting Lobo’s School Committee tenure during the 1980s and early 1990s.
“This is real sad news,” said Fox.
Retired Southwick-Tolland Regional High School principal Michael J. Camerota called Lobo’s death a “big loss. She was a wonderful woman and mother who raised three great kids.
“I was a social studies teacher and member of the (contract) negotiating team when she was on the School Committee,” said Camerota. “She was tough but she wanted to reward senior teachers and those of us who earned higher degrees. She was pro-teacher and pro-quality education ... just an outstanding School Committee member,” Camerota said.
Southwick Chief Administrative Officer Karl J. Stinehart also recalled working with Lobo while she was on the School Committee.
“It was always a pleasure working with her,” said Stinehart. “She was dedicated to education,” he said.
She was first diagnosed with breast cancer when Rebecca was a junior at UConn in 1995 and she became an advocate and inspiration for women with the disease. She had been featured in numerous publications such a O, Glamour, Family Circus and appeared on "CBS This Morning" and ABC’s "Good Morning America," according to information published by the Hartford Courant on Tuesday.
As an educator, Lobo was awarded the Maria Miller Steward Award by the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, and also received the First Survivor’s Award, named in her honor, by the Connecticut Women Race for the Cure.
As a Title IX compliance coordinator for the Granby, Conn., School District, Lobo was selected teacher of the year in Granby and was a finalist for state teacher of the year, according to the Courant.
Lobo served on Southwick’s School Committee for six years prior to September 1992. She and her family later relocated to nearby Simsbury, Conn.
In 1996, mother and daughter published ‘The Home Team’, a book dealing with Ruth Ann Lobo’s breast cancer. They also founded the Ruth Ann and Rebecca Lobo Scholarship for Hispanic students attending UConn’s School of Allied Health.
In May 2000, Ruth Ann Lobo was presented an enlargment of the Breast Cancer Research Stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service. The presentation was made during the dedication of Southwick’s new post office on College Highway.
Besides Rebecca, Lobo is survived by her husband Dennis, son Jason, daughter Rachel and several grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements by the Hayden-Huling and Carmon Funeral Home in Granby, Conn., were incomplete late Tuesday.