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Alfred Rubio Obituary

Alfred M. Rubio, age 95, of Somerville, MA and Leicester, VT, passed away April 7, 2013 at Helen Porter Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, Middlebury, VT. Born in Cuba, he emigrated at age two to the United States with his American mother and Cuban father. He lived most of his adult life in Chicago, IL, and was a World War II veteran, U.S. Navy, serving in the Pacific. Alfred had a variety of careers in his lifetime: motor mechanic, assembly line worker, machinist, carpenter, model-builder and inventor. Before he retired he was a shop teacher at Lamoille Union H. S. in Vermont. In mid-life he taught himself how to sail, and cruised on Lake Michigan and later, Lake Champlain. At age 92 he joked that he was Vermonts oldest chore boy, when he fed the hens, llamas, and horses on his daughters Leicester, VT farm. A lifelong activist, Alfred organized against racial discrimination in Champaign-Urbana, IL and in Chicago, and later in Vermont, was a trade unionist, fair housing activist, and a strong supporter of nuclear disarmament. After moving to Somerville, MA in 1985, he volunteered for nearly two decades on behalf of senior citizens, at Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services and with the Massachusetts Silver-Haired Legislature. He was instrumental in the passage of a Massachusetts bill protecting the rights of hearing aid purchasers. His wife Helen Schmidt Rubio died in 2002. He is survived by his sisters Jeanne Jackson and Ana Smith, both of Massachusetts, his daughters Katharine Briggs (Leicester, VT) and Ann Froines (Hamden, CT), three grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, and nine nieces and nephews. Services will be private. Donations in his memory may be made to Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services (see website) and www.veteransforpeace.com

Published by The Somerville Journal from Apr. 9 to Apr. 16, 2013.
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