Connie (Cochran) Sobel (1932-2010)
SOBEL, COCHRAN, EVANSON, BUTLER
Posted By: Ames Tribune
Date: 8/8/2010 at 09:34:19
THE AMES TRIBUNE, Ames, Story County, Iowa, Wednesday, August 4, 2010.
Connie Sobel, 78, of Pasadena, Calif., passed away at home Tuesday, July 27, 2010, after a valiant struggle with esophageal cancer. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 6, at Adams Funeral Home in Ames, with visitation beginning at 10 a.m. Interment will be in Ames Municipal Cemetery.
Born Constance Carol Cochran on Jan. 20, 1932, to Laurence Julian and Marie Lenora (Evanson) Cochran in Fort Dodge, she graduated from Fort Dodge High School and attended junior college there before receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Iowa State University.
For many years, she did research in analytical chemistry as a spectroscopist at the Ames Laboratory at ISU where she was one of the pioneers in the development of the inductively-coupled plasma as a viable source for trace element analysis. After leaving Ames, she continued to work in spectroscopy for Cabot Corporation in Massachusetts and for Applied Research Laboratories and Perkin-Elmer Corporation in California. Most recently, she did environmental quality assurance data analysis for Parsons Corporation in Pasadena.
A longtime member of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, she served as chair of two of the local sections of the SAS and was its national secretary from 1983 to 1985. In 1997, she received the society’s Distinguished Service Award.
She was very active in the American Association of University Women. She was elected president of each of the four branches where she was a member, served as a delegate to state conferences, and contributed her time to the Tech Trek program to promote science and math to middle school girls. She also served as the Pasadena branch’s representative for the AAUW Educational Foundation, which benefits women pursuing advanced education, research and projects within the community.
Additional professional and community involvement included membership in the American Chemical Society, Sigma Xi honorary and Beta Sigma Phi, and serving as a docent at the historic Gamble House in Pasadena. Her dedication to education ranged from teaching a 2- and 3-year-olds’ Sunday school class for many years in Ames to assisting in student recruitment in southern California for her alma mater.
She was one who made the most of the best and the least of the worst. Her generosity of spirit and hospitality to those she encountered in every aspect of her life was rewarded with an abundance of friends. Her professional associations afforded her the opportunity to travel widely, and she maintained correspondence with many colleagues all over the world. Iowa held a special place in her heart, and she returned for extended visits twice a year with family and associates from years past.
She is survived by her husband, Hal, of Pasadena, Calif.; one son, Eric Butler, of Des Moines; and one nephew, Ben Cochran, of Colorado Springs, Colo.
She was preceded in death by her parents and one brother, Dean Cochran.
Donations in her memory may be sent to the American Cancer Society, the AAUW, or Iowa State University’s Women in Science and Engineering program.
http://www.amestrib.com/
Story Obituaries maintained by Mark Christian.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen