John "Jack" Wheelwright Cobb

John (Jack) Wheelwright Cobb died peacefully at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts, on June 24, 2023, at age 95.  He was born on October 4, 1927 in Boston to Charles K. and Elsie Q. (Nichols) Cobb, and grew up in Brookline, attending Shady Hill School, Browne and Nichols, and St. John’s College in Annapolis.  He graduated from Harvard College (class of ’49), where he majored in philosophy and was a member of the Harvard Lampoon and the Fly Club.  

In 1953, Jack completed his JD at the University of Pennsylvania and married Ann Loring Valentine.  Together, they lived in Cambridge with their four children and several dogs, including a litter of four Siberian Husky puppies.  Jack loved taking his children on expeditions on the weekends, to the movies, museums, and as his crew on the Phoebe for many sails between Massachusetts and North Haven, Maine.  He was an excellent cook, specializing in breakfasts for his children, introducing them to scrapple and johnny cakes.

Jack was an active community member from his earliest days as a resident of Neighborhood 9 in Cambridge.  In the 1960s, he and his friend and neighbor, Lee Campbell, borrowed a rowboat from the Cambridge Fire Department to take soundings of the standing water at the Cambridge Dump, now the site of Danehy Park.  He served on many boards and committees, including the boards of the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Cambridge School of Weston and the Carroll School, and a committee of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.  Jack was a member of the Harvard Epworth Church in Cambridge, Phi Beta Kappa, the Signet Society, and the Tavern Club, where he enjoyed gathering with friends, writing and performing in plays, and helping organize readings of Homer, Ovid and Dante. 

After retiring in 1992 from a long and successful career as a trust officer at Fiduciary Trust Company, he pursued a longstanding interest in classics, attending classes at Harvard, where he co-founded, edited and contributed to the classics journal Persephone, and teaching Ancient Greek at the Harvard Extension School for many years.  In addition, like his father, he became an accomplished landscape painter late in life.   He and Ann taught and attended classes at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, and traveled extensively with friends and family, including trips to Greece, Britain, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Turkey and Guatemala.  In their quieter moments, when not entertaining their grandchildren, hosting friends for dinner, or walking their faithful canine companion, Bertie, Jack enjoyed reading aloud from P.G.Wodehouse, Trollope, and other works to Ann in front of the fire.

        Since childhood, he spent part of each summer vacationing with his family on the island of North Haven, where he loved to sail, visit with dear friends and relations, and to watch the fog roll in.  Most recently, he spent a very happy summer there, at Southern Harbor House, enjoying the lovely community and views of spruce trees, Penobscot Bay and the Camden Hills.   Known for his good humor, lively intellect, joie de vivre, and generosity of spirit, Jack delighted in spending time with a large circle of devoted friends and family until the very end of his long life.  

He is predeceased by his wife of 69 years, Ann Valentine Cobb, and his brothers Charles K. Cobb, Jr. and Henry N. Cobb.  He leaves behind his children Susan Cobb Merchant (Dudley), Priscilla Cobb (Dan Cherneff), Victoria Cobb Westacott (Emrys), and Matthew 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 Robert, Nicholas, and Julia Hill and Cyrus Merchant, and many beloved and devoted nieces and nephews, and an enormous collection of books on a wide variety of topics.  

A memorial service is being planned for the fall.

Donations in Jack’s memory may be made to Southern Harbor House, in North Haven, Maine, www.southernharborhouse.org, and to the Carroll School scholarship fund, www.carrollschool.org