With aching hearts we share sad news of the passing of our father, Jack. He died peacefully of pneumonia surrounded by his adult children, Linda and Christopher Cobb. He was born in Walton, Kentucky, the first child of John C Cobb, Sr., and Lucy Dean Cobb. He grew up in Charleston, West Virginia, and attended Stonewall Jackson High School. After graduation he immediately enlisted in the US Navy and served on the USS Palau. After WWII, he attended Antioch College, Ohio, and graduated in 1950 with a degree in Sociology, spending two quarters of his senior year at Mexico City College. His first job out of school was in New York City for Vision, Inc., which published news magazines in Spanish and Portuguese, working for them in NYC, Venezuela and Brazil as a foreign correspondent, editorial staffer, and publishing executive. From 1958 to 1962 he worked in Guanajuato, Mexico, as Director of the Antioch Education Abroad program. At Michigan State University, he worked for the Computer Institute for Social Science Research. In 1967-68, he received a Fulbright Grant to teach (in Spanish) social sciences at the University of El Salvador in San Salvador. He was also a training director for the Peace Corps and performed survey research for the Agency for International Development. He became Executive Director of the Latin American Studies Association base at the Library of Congress. He was an editor, writer, publisher and research in Latin American and the US.
In addition to his expertise in Latin American studies, he had hobbies, including riding his bicycle, and hiking in the Shenandoah National Forest. He enjoyed listening to many genres of music, including big band, jazz and Latin American music. He owned a Honda CRX and was one of the early adopters of hybrid technology.
After retiring, he spent a year in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. His daughter, Linda, traveled with him in Mexico during that time.
He studied tap dancing in high school, and after a long hiatus, picked it up again. He wrote some articles for the International Tap Association magazine and did some tap choreography. He was the sole male member of the Gotta Dance tap performance group consisting of seniors who were tap enthusiasts.
We will miss him terribly. He was a very kind and considerate father.
