Beth Colombe Obituary

Colombe Dr. Beth Passed away May 1, 2023. An immunologist and longtime member of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), she was quiet, meticulous, and engaged but never sought the limelight. Her wisdom and insight made her a good listener as well as a generous supporter of people and organizations. She had a dry sense of humor, sharp intellect, and stout moral compass. Independent and fair-minded, she maintained the esteem of all who knew her. She graduated from Brandeis in 1957, married, and spent time in Europe where she went to cooking schools in countries where her husband taught English. She later pursued her scientific education, receiving a PhD in Physiology from UC Berkeley in 1967. She divorced and remarried (Roy Colombe), held post-docs at UCLA with Dr. John Fahey and at Stanford with Dr. Carl Grumet, then worked with Dr. Rose Payne also at Stanford, and then co-directed the new Immunogenetics & Transplant Lab with Dr. Marvin Garavoy at UCSF. She returned to her beloved East Coast and directed the HLALab at Jefferson Transplant Institute in Philadelphia. For her decades-long services to ASHI she was honored with their Distinguished Service Award in 2010. She retired in 2020 at age 84. Family meant the world to her. Beth was preceded in death by her mother, Annette Fine Cohen, and father, George Cohen, both of Hartford, Connecticut, as well as many beloved aunts, uncles, and cousins. She is survived by cousins Dan Fine (wife Carolyn), Jane Solous, Liz Martino (husband Harold), Donna Mark (ex-wife of cousin Robert Hurwit), Jess Hurwit (husband Stephen), Jan Crean and Meryl Crean along with their families plus two step-children Audrey Colombe and Leroy Colombe. Her staff at the Philadelphia lab were her 'daily family.' She was cared for in her final days by dear friends Maggie Gardener and Daphne Hurdle. She loved classical piano (Murray Perahia, Marc-Andre Hamelin, and Rafa? Blechacz), Baroque chamber music (and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society), birding (the Audubon Society), snorkeling, cooking, reading, a well-told joke, and the Boston Red Sox. Always and forever the Red Sox. She served on the board of Gardener's House Inc., loved to travel, and supported several animal welfare and conservancy organizations. A memorial celebration is being planned in Philadelphia. Contributions can be made in her name to the Nature Conservancy of Connecticut, Gardener's House Inc. of Hartford,or the SPCA of San Francisco. www.goldsteinsfuneral.com

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Published by The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jul. 2, 2023.

Memories and Condolences
for Beth Colombe

Sponsored by Goldsteins’ Rosenberg’s Funeral Directors Suburban North - Southampton.

8 Entries

Stephen Steen

January 23, 2025

Dearest Beth: I will forever remember how you took a chance on a Brit. and offered me a job in your UCSF lab., with Marvin Garovoy, back in 1989. It was an honour to work for, and alongside you, both there at at CPMC, which you Directed subsequently. You are often in my thoughts, and I remember you telling me 'Don't sweat the small stuff - and it's all small stuff." It helped enormously! Thank you Beth, from the bottom of my heart, Stephen Steen CHS (ABHI).

Jon Kearney

November 27, 2024

Dr. C,
I cant thank you enough for your wonderful words and support. You showed up when I was out on a limb. I have thanked you several times and I have thanked God even more times for you. I could not be more grateful for our paths crossing. I will never forget the stories you would tell me regarding your life as a little girl in Connecticut and digging for clams on the sound. You were and are truly a gift as I am sure that your spirit lives. I remember our lunches in center city and our talks as I would drive you home. Once again, I say thank you and I hope that you are proud of me.

Jon

Maggie Gardner

Planted Trees

Maggie Gardner

January 23, 2024

I am here remembering how you took care of me, when i had surgery for cancer, I have to go again, not for cancer, but to straighten me out. I do wish that you were here to tell me that I will be ok.

Nadine A Cohen

September 27, 2023

I have a few fond memories with Beth and I would like to share a couple of them with you.

As you know Beth was a brilliant and dedicated immunogeneticist. We worked together at UCSF and together with Marsha Guggenheim and Jan Capper who are on the zoom this afternoon we became to UCSF gang

Beth was a successful scientist admired by everyone in the laboratory and in the world. She attempted to correct my french accent. My son would agree with Beth that it was necessary. I remember sitting with Beth in her office and she would teach me how to pronunciate a few words I could use when I was giving lectures. As you can tell, as successful as she was as a scientist, she failed at correcting my accent.

A few years later I moved to Princeton, NJ and Beth moved to Philadelphia. So we stayed in touch and would meet from time to time in Philadelphia and go to concerts together and have good food. Beth loved french cheese and good wine.

Covid got us closer. The UCSF gang, Marsha, Jan, Beth and myself started to have a monthly zoom call. Beth would never miss one.

One evening, Beth did not join our zoom call. I called her cell phone thinking she had forgotten about it. Her cousin, I think it was Meryl or Jane picked up the phone and told me what happened to Beth.

So I started spending a lot of time with Beth visiting her at the hospital and then at the assisted living facility. I was trying to lift her spirits and would bring her cheese she might like. One day I told her I had met a guy online and I liked him a lot. I described him as being smart, funny, good looking, and as a very good classical pianist. Beth from her hospital bed and half paralyzed asked me " Nadine is there enough of him to go around?" and we laughed so much.

Beth! I miss you and I will always remember your kindness and your sense of humor.

Marsha Guggenheim

July 24, 2023

07.23.23

Dear Family and Friends of Beth's -

Wouldn't you know that the first question below brought tears to my eyes. I always thought of Beth as "family," as a dear "friend" and I also "worked" with her. She was a very important person in my life for over 40 years.

It is difficult to summarize 40+ years into a few words. Beth hired me at the University of California, SF to administer the development of the Immunogenetics & Transplantation Lab. I remember she had such confidence in me. We worked together for over ten years and the labs success was notable.

Beth became my favorite person. I admired her brilliance, integrity, compassion and her wonderful sense of humor that often had has roaring with laughter.

I am attaching a picture from Ralph's and my wedding 37 years ago. Bethy was my "maid of honor" and signed our ketubah. Our friendship blossomed and continued to grow even when the geography changed. Even through Covid, we shared book titles, politics and everyday challenges - always with her profound wisdom.

I miss Beth. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to have had her as "family" "friend" and "colleague" for almost a half a century.

I love you, Bethy. May your memory be for a blessing.

Marsha

Carol Seelaus

July 16, 2023

I started to clean Beth's apartment in the Touraine after she took a class I was teaching at Temple University Center City over 20 years ago. As my knees began to develop arthritis, I got out of the cleaning business, but I continued to work for Beth because there were no stairs, and I loved working for her! After she retired, we got to see each other every other week. We exchanged books, recipes and told stories of our pasts, and we always laughed! And I had an additional responsibility: she loved doing crossword puzzles at the dining room table, which had a patterned rug underneath. Occasionally, a puzzle piece would fall and disappear into the pattern. So: I had to crawl under the table, and run my hand over the carpet to rescue whatever had fallen since I last saw her. Otherwise, it would have gotten sucked up into the vacuum cleaner, and she would have spent a lot of time finishing a 500 piece puzzle with less than 500 pieces. So, I'd arrive, slap on my knee pads and go for that little bugger that had escaped! We had many such "eureka" moments.

Audrey Colombe

July 13, 2023

One great memory of Beth has to do with bird watching. My dad was a Saturday Afternoon Dad for a while--my brother and I would pile into his Volkswagon bug (circa 1966) and do whatever. Occasionally Beth came along, and when she did it was her and me in the back seat and my brother and dad in the front seat. (When my brother and I sold that car about ten years ago, I drove it for a day to check it out, beforehand--it was like driving a lawn mower! We took that thing on trips to Arizona and New Mexico! Sheesh!) This one afternoon we went to watch burrowing owls on stretches of land near the South Bay Area where NASA had some offices. (Our dad worked there for a while.) Beth and I shared binoculars and I was totally shocked by these burrowing birds who would pop out looking like stunned people with no arms. They walked around and dove back into their holes--owls underground!! I became a devoted bird watcher after that. Beth and I shared that interest later, along with the memory of that day. There were a lot of pieces of associations where mutual gratitude for small beautiful things became a language between us. I am going to miss that immensely.

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