Ann (Valentine) Cobb

Ann Valentine Cobb passed away peacefully on the morning of February 7, 2022, at her home in Belmont, Massachusetts. She was 90 years old. 

Ann was born on May 26, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois to John W. Valentine and Jean Purcell Valentine.  She grew up in Bedford Village, NY, where she attended the Rippowam School.  During the war years her family lived briefly in Orinda, CA, where her father was in officer training in preparation for his service on the Intrepid aircraft carrier in the Pacific during WW II. She went to Milton Academy for high school, graduating in 1949.  She then attended Barnard College for two years and studied painting at the Skowhegan School of Art in Maine, and at The Museum School in Boston. She married John W. Cobb in 1953, and together they raised a family of four children and two dogs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was active on the Save Venice Committee, was a member of the Cambridge Garden Club and volunteered with a number of other local organizations.  In 1972, Ann enrolled at Tufts University, where she completed a BA in English literature, earning membership in the Phi Beta Kappa honors society, and then a PhD with a dissertation on the works of poet Seamus Heaney.  She wrote reviews, poetry and short fiction for the Harvard Review and other literary publications.  After her husband Jack’s retirement, they traveled widely with friends, visiting places from Guatemala to Istanbul, spending several months living in Rome, and taking their children and grandchildren on fun vacations.  During her later years, she taught and took classes at Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement (HILR) and took delight in walking her Bichon Frise, Bertie, around the Avon Hill neighborhood in Cambridge, where she and Jack lived for more than sixty years, chatting with neighbors and friends along the way.  She attended the Harvard Epworth Church in Cambridge for many years.  Ann was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother and was never happier than when surrounded by all of her family.   Her siblings, Jean Valentine and Johnny Valentine, predeceased her. Ann leaves behind her husband of 69 years, Jack Cobb, and children Susan Cobb Merchant (Dudley), Priscilla Cobb (Dan Cherneff), Victoria Westacott (Emrys), and Max Cobb (Rosemary Shea-Cobb); grandchildren Emily Hill (George), Alex Merchant (Maddie Lagattuta), Rose and Lyle Cherneff, Sophie and Emily Westacott, Charlie, Tim, and Virginia Cobb; and great grandchildren Robbie, Nico, and Julia Hill and Cyrus Merchant.  A private memorial service for family and close friends will be held in May

Donations may be made in Ann’s honor to Mass Audubon www.massaudubon.org or Cambridge Public Library Foundation www.cplfound.org.