Roberta Koons

Bobbie Koons, 91, lived a life of laughter and had a passion for learning. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she graduated from Radcliffe College (Harvard University) with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics. She went on to receive her Master of Arts degree in Social Science and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Psychology from Michigan State University. She held memberships in MENSA, Psy Chi and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. Beginning as a speech pathologist to Baltimore city youth, she went on to pioneer early childhood education methods, developing the first preschool in the country, located in Athens, Ohio. She was later invited to Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii to create their inaugural preschool program. Bobbie was a psychology professor for many years at Michigan State University and Shippensburg State University (Pennsylvania). In an era of repression, she created innovative courses in human sexuality in addition to teaching courses in experimental and social psychology. Returning to Baltimore, she assumed Directorship of the city’s Drug and Rape Crisis Center Hotline. Bobbie retired to Columbia, Maryland and worked for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia (UUCC) as their Sunday Coordinator for more than a decade. Bobbie loved deeply. She continued to wear her wedding ring for 46 years after her husband’s death, and was fiercely devoted to her children, Paul and Leslie. Paul recalls “it was like having Mary Poppins for a mother.” Bobbie was a private person, yet a kind and thoughtful friend. She loved coffee (black), books, and crosswords. Crochet and kittens. She loved music of all sorts from orchestral to opera, folk to rock. She had a sense of gentle mischief, a lively sense of humor and loved to play with language, reveling in complex thought. She played piano and guitar, and spoke Swedish, German and a smattering of French. In her late eighties, she returned to college to study Russian, and economics, and continued to follow the news and arts avidly. Even in her last months, her eyes twinkled, she joked and sang, and her sentences were liberally sprinkled with the “three-penny” words she loved. On the afternoon of December 16th, 2018, Bobbie slipped away peacefully. She is survived by her son, her daughter, their spouses and three grandchildren.

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