Thursday, February 01, 2007
Miriam (Sweet) Coombs, a 50-year resident of Concord, died Saturday, Jan. 27, 2007, at Emerson Hospital in Concord, just two weeks after celebrating her 99th birthday. She was the wife of the late John Dexter Coombs.
Born in Brookfield, Vt. on Jan. 12, 1908, she was the daughter of the late Rev. John E. and Gertrude (Carleton) Sweet and stepdaughter of Dr. Perley E. Speed. Raised in Lisbon and Woodsville, N.H., Mrs. Coombs was a New Englander through and through. She graduated from Woodsville High School in 1924 and from Middlebury College in 1928. Those familiar with her nuanced use of the English language and annoyance with those who were careless with it, will not be surprised to learn that English was her favorite subject and that she majored in American Literature at Middlebury. In 1950 she earned a master's degree in education at the University of Connecticut after attending a series of summer school sessions.
Mrs. Coombs' lifelong love of sports began early; she recalled sitting on the fence to watch the Woodsville town baseball team play when she was very young. In high school she played basketball - little knowing that later she would herself become a high school girls' basketball coach. It remained her favorite sport and she spent hours watching (cheering and criticizing) the Celtics through the years. Her enthusiasm for the Red Sox (Carleton Fiske was her favorite player) and the Patriots in recent years was not easily matched by other fans. She enjoyed watching tennis as well (and thought it a very sad day for the sport when Andre Agassi retired).
A third great love after English, literature (she was an avid reader and loved living right behind the Fowler Library), and sports, was music. She studied piano and took voice lessons; throughout her school and college years she sang in choirs and glee clubs. As an adult she directed the junior choir in four different churches and sang in more than one adult church choir.
Graduating from college at the age of 20, she began a long and distinguished career as a teacher. Her first job was in Woodbury, Conn., where she taught English in high school (and later taught 8th graders and directed the annual operetta performances; decades later, many of those students still remembered her as "The Operetta Queen").
She was part of the Woodbury educational system one way or another from 1928-1956; it was in Woodbury also that she met and married high school principal, John Dexter Coombs. Her two sons Ð Allan Dexter Coombs and John Speed Coombs were born in Woodbury in 1933 and 1938 respectively; both attended the private primary school she ran in her home for several years and were later students of hers when she returned to the public school system.
In 1956 Mrs. Coombs began what she often referred to as her second life, when she became a member of the first faculty of the new Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. She loved the years she taught there, because of the opportunity to be part of a wonderful and lively group of teachers being challenged to experiment in their teaching and to start traditions.
Again she taught English, this time freshmen and juniors. She was also yearbook advisor to the seniors and taught elective courses (the faculty were encouraged by the administration to do so); the subject was always words. Mrs. Coombs taught a course she invented, called "Advantage Verbal." A direct outcome of this was that's he was asked to become co-author with Johnson O'Connor of the widely used Ginn Vocabulary Program.
Well-known as a booster of the sports programs at Lincoln-Sudbury, Mrs. Coombs got awards from students for that enthusiasm and support. Later she became one of the first group of retired faculty to be included on the Lincoln-Sudbury "Wall of Honor." Mrs. Coombs was a reader/grader for the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J., three times; with her husband, she attended the Breadloaf Conference run by Middlebury one year, when Robert Frost was on the staff there. In later years, she was an avid participant in several Elder Hostel courses.
Retirement in 1972 simply meant the beginning of a third career for Mrs. Coombs, as a civic volunteer and active member of community groups. At West Concord Union Church (WCUC), she started and directed the junior choir for years; she was also a member of the senior choir for several years. She was a deacon for six years and always made special efforts to befriend members of the "Sunday Fellowship," a group of developmentally delayed adults who are part of WCUC's active programming.
A member of WCUC's History Committee that was charged with planning, preparing, and publishing a book to celebrate the church's 100th anniversary, she had earlier served as a WCUS representative on the Refugee Committee that brought three families to Concord. She was likewise and active member of Concord Prison Outreach.
In her 80s, she joined the tutoring program and taught English to Spanish-speaking inmates at the local state prison in Concord; she tutored one young poet and helped get his poems published in a little booklet.
Mrs. Coombs was among those involved in establishing the Open Table in town; she was a much-loved and extremely active member of the West Concord Woman's Club (serving one term as president and many other committees). A devoted member of the group that made puppets for the Emerson Hospital patients, she also worked on the annual fair and for seven years was a regular volunteer in the group that made monthly visits to the Bedford VA Hospital.
Appointed to the town's special Traffic and Safety Commission that eventually succeeded in getting the traffic light installed at the intersection of Main and Church streets in West Concord, she served from 1976-1981. Two years later she was appointed to the Public Relations Subcommittee of the town's 350th Anniversary Celebration Committee and - true to character-volunteered to take on the secretary's role when no one else was willing to step forward.
She served on the Cemetery Committee for two three-year terms; she was a member of the League of Women Voters and "Observer" for the league at the Recreation Commission for nearly 20 years (the Commission would not let her resign and made her an Honorary Member).
In 1992, Mrs. Coombs was chosen as Concord's Honored Citizen - an honor she relished while insisting that many others were at least as deserving as she. Fifteen years later, on the eve of her death, she still seemed amazed at the support she had through the years from friends and associates - a widow for more than three decades, her life was never lonely thanks to those friends and associates. Looking back, she described herself as "feisty" and "outspoken"- no doubt part of why she had so many friends and admirers. But she was also the kind of person who took the trouble to write personal notes and send cards to people with even the thinnest of connections with her. She will be sorely missed by a range of friends, neighbors, and townspeople of all ages as well as by the large family to which she was devoted.
Surviving family members are her two sons and their wives: Allan D. and Marsha Coombs of Avon, Conn. and John S. and Barbara Coombs of Macon, Ga.; 18 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A memorial service celebrating Mrs. Coombs life will be held Monday, Jan. 29 in the West Concord Union Church with Rev. John Hudson officiating. A private family graveside service was held prior in the family plot in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord.
Gifts in her name may be made to West Concord Union Church, 1317 Main St, Concord, MA 01742 or the Concord Council on Aging, 1276 Main St., Concord, MA.
Copyright: Concord Journal and Community Newspaper Company
Posted to the L-S website with the permission of the Concord Journal
