Norman Barnett, age 91, passed away Dec. 2, 2007 in Pleasanton. A native of Manchester, England, he raised his family in Oakland and then retired in Rossmoor. He worked in the retail toy industry for over 30 years. He was a longtime member of Temple Sinai in Oakland and B’nai Brith. He was involved in the establishment of the Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living in Danville.
He is survived by his children Irv (Lee) Barnett and Fran (Dave) Cunningham; his grandchildren, Elizabeth and Jason; his great grandchildren, Zoe, Violet and Ewan; and his brother Leslie Barnett. He was preceded in death by his loving wife Janet for over 50 years, his twin brother Cyril and his sister Rita. Services were held under the direction of Sinai Memorial Chapel. Donations can be made to Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living, 4000 Camino Tassajara, Danville CA 94506.
Ellis H. Robinson. On Dec. 12, 2007 in San Rafael at age 79. Beloved husband of Anita B. for 43 years; loving father of Louise Robinson, Marcea (Charles) Terra, Kathleen (Lew) Goldklang and Dennis (Renee) Jermaine; devoted grandfather of Alicia and Joshua (Robin) Jermaine, David, Julian and Jordan Goldklang, Ashley Terra and Forrest Robinson; and great grandfather of Jack Jermaine. Dear nephew of Betty Loesch and cousin to many.
Ellis will be greatly missed by his family and many friends. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley and member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. A scholar and gentleman, he was an avid chess player, member of the Audubon Society, owner of the Terra Linda Variety Store and a real estate broker for many years in Marin and San Francisco counties. Funeral services were held at Eternal Home Cemetery Chapel in Colma.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions in Ellis’ name to the charity of your choice. Arrangements made by Sinai Memorial Chapel.
Jacob (Yaakov) Rubin passed away on Oct. 24, 2007 in Mountain View. A long-time Palo Alto resident, he is survived by his wife of 63 years, Ruth (Gologorksy) Rubin; sons Rami Rubin (Nancy) of Cupertino, Oren Rubin (Nava Shaham) of Piedmont, and daughter Talia Shaham of Palo Alto; nine grandchildren — David, Michael, Raphael, Roni, Raviv, Libbat-Tzion, Shlomtzi, Shira and Amit; and brother Elisha Amir and family of Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek in Israel. He was 88 years old.
Born in Wloclawek, Poland on Feb. 1, 1919 to Moshe and Sara Rubin, Yaakov Rubin immigrated to the United States before the war in 1939 to attend the University of California. His parents and most of his extended family were killed in the Holocaust. He was a leader in the Zionist youth movement, Hashomer Hatza’ir — both in Poland and, in the 1940s, in San Francisco. A veteran of the U.S. Army during World War II, he received his PhD from UC Berkeley in soil physics.
Jacob Rubin and family made aliyah to Israel in 1949. He worked at the Agricultural Research Center in Rehovot and taught at the Technion and the Hebrew University. As Chair of the Irrigation and Soil Physics Division, and as Director of the Institute of Soils and Water, he led research to develop sustainable arid-land agriculture in the growing nation.
Returning to the U.S. in 1961, he became a chief scientist in the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, and joined the Stanford University faculty as a consulting professor. He attained the highest scientific rank achievable in civil service and received the U.S. Department of the Interior’s highest award for public service.
He was known as a pioneer of water infiltration theory, and was most proud of his work in founding the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Jacob’s passion for creative thinking, mentoring and addressing national needs through the combination of applied and basic research inspired colleagues, students and policy leaders throughout the course of his productive, 45-year career. His insistent intellect was tempered and guided by a remarkable brand of optimistic humanism.
With the same sense of purpose and methodology, Jacob Rubin researched family genealogy. During this 30-year avocation, he created a clear method for compiling family trees and histories, making them come to life for the reader. He produced numerous copies of several family lines and gave them to relatives and museums around the world.
Graveside services were held on Oct. 26 in Colma at Salem Memorial Park.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California