BARBARA RABIN

Barbara Wurtzel Rabin passed away September 22, 2019 at the age of 86 in the company of her three children. Barbara was funny, warm and adored her friends and family. She set an example of family connection, talking with her mother and sister almost daily. She found wonder and joy in life � whether stopping to inspect the perfect plant on her walks in the woods, baking butter cookies with her children when they were young, making her much-loved blueberry tart with her grandchildren or sledding and snowshoeing at her weekend house in the Berkshires well into her 70s. She was a serious woman who was ahead of her time but who always made time to be with the people she loved and to find joy in everyday moments. Barbara was a dynamo and a fighter for justice. She grew up in New York City and Westchester, New York. After attending Fieldston for middle and high school, where she met her first husband, Alan Wurtzel, she studied at Oberlin College and the London School of Economics and taught elementary school in Connecticut before moving to Washington D.C., where she had three children in four years while earning a PhD in Political Science from American University. In 1966, Barbara and her family moved to Richmond Virginia, where she quickly identified ways she could contribute to the city. Unhappy with the existing school segregation and lackluster education in her children's neighborhood elementary school, she banded with several like-minded families to launch the first voluntarily integrated and open-classroom public school in Richmond, John B. Cary Elementary School. She also helped found Citizens for Excellence in Public Schools that led to the development of Henderson Middle School, and the Open High School. In 1971, she became a founder and the first Executive Director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME). Under her leadership, HOME worked to educate the community and enforce the 1968 Fair Housing Act. While at HOME, Barbara led the development of a case that resulted in the landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision in Havens v. Coleman that gave standing to fair housing testers and their organizations to sue to enforce the Fair Housing Act. While she was on the vanguard of change, she was also an inclusive bridge builder. A history of HOME describes her as "passionate, bold, and extremely capable" as well as "able to get things accomplished in a very controversial area without making enemies." In her 50s, Barbara started a second phase of life, earning her law degree at University of Virginia, and marrying Yale Rabin, then an associate dean of urban planning at the UVA School of Architecture. Barbara and Yale moved to Cambridge Massachusetts in 1987 where she continued her civil rights work as an attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and then with Greater Boston Legal Services, as a board member of the National Fair Housing Alliance, and in countless other roles. When in 2004 she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, she faced the challenge as she faced all challenges � with determination, practicality, and grace. Knowing she would need more support and would want to be closer to her children and step-children, in 2009, she and Yale moved to a continuing care retirement community near Philadelphia. Even as her illness eroded here formidable intellect, her essential warmth, compassion and humor remained throughout the rest of her life. With bad puns and worse singing but always a big sunny smile, she made whomever she encountered feel special and appreciated. The family particularly wants to share their deep gratitude to the staff at Foulkeways who cared for her with love, compassion and respect for the past decade. Hers was a life well lived and it ended peacefully. She is survived by her children, Judy Wurtzel, Daniel Wurtzel (Lynn), Sharon Wurtzel (Jeff), and five grandchildren, her sister, Caroline Parker, her nephews and nieces and their children, her five step-children and their eight kids. Relatives and friends are invited to Memorial Services Saturday, November 9, 2019, at 12 Noon in the Community Center at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, 1120 Meetinghouse Road, Gwynedd, PA 19436. In lieu of flowers, the family requests any donations be sent to the Barbara Wurtzel Rabin Fund at Housing Opportunities Made Equal (https://homeofva.org).