Ramona Jean Burks

Ramona Jean Burks was born September 26, 1954 to parents David Donald and Alice Payne Burks in Columbus, Ohio. She was the youngest of three children with an older brother, Stephen, and a sister, Maria. The family moved several times when Ramona was a child, so that by the time she entered high school she’d lived in Washington, DC, New York, Michigan and Indiana as well as Ohio. Her older siblings loved her – she was cute and precocious and they nicknamed her Doodsie.

Ramona was always good with words and with people – an unusual combination. In Bloomington Indiana’s University High School she was a member of the National Honor Society, the French Honor Society and both theater clubs (Thespians and Jordan Jesters), she won the Little United National Essay Contest, and she served as Editor in Chief of Verity, the school literary magazine.

Ramona went on to excel as an undergraduate at Macalester College, and at George Mason University, where she earned her MBA and was named Alumna of the Year.

Her first job out of college was as a National Park Ranger. One of her duty stations was Alcatraz Island at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the infamous former penitentiary, where she gave guided tours and helped to manage the filming of “Escape from Alcatraz.” A career change took her to the staff of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in New Jersey. There she was inspired by the tremendous need she saw for affordable housing and fairer access to a decent standard of living for all Americans, and she spent the rest of her career working to address that need, earning her MBA on the way. After a few years at HUD, having learned the discipline, she transitioned to a private sector firm based in Washington, DC, which was then acquired by the Inner City Fund (ICF).

Over a 30+-year career in her field of housing and neighborhood redevelopment Ramona traveled the country, working with low-income communities, including Native American communities, training, developing curriculum and evaluating programs to assure compliance with federal requirements and facilitating access to funds. Her expertise ran the gamut from HUD block grant programs to environmental regulations, to disaster recovery. She trained and mentored numerous colleagues and retired as an esteemed Senior Vice President of ICF, continuing for several more years as a part-time consultant to the firm after moving to Seattle.

Ramona loved to garden and had an amazing green thumb. She also enjoyed hiking and was a long term pescatarian and yoga practitioner. She never met a coupon she didn’t like, never passed up a good deal and loved to drive a hard bargain. Raised in the Quaker tradition, Ramona at times attended a nearby Society of Friends Meeting on Sundays. She had dozens of dear friends through her work, her children’s schools, her book clubs, the neighborhood and her YMCA, friends who meant the world to her. In fact, she met her beloved husband Jeff Sobotka through friends, who fixed them up for a date on a hiking and biking adventure. Married 30 years, the couple had two children, Elise and Alec Sobotka, whom Ramona considered the crowning achievements of her life. The family loved to hike, sightsee and travel and Ramona and Jeff nurtured Elise’s love of swimming and Alec’s love of sports. Jeff’s love and devotion stood the test of time as he gave Ramona his unwavering support through her lengthy illness – an amazing gift of love Ramona cherished.

A memorial gathering will be scheduled for later in the fall when it’s safer to travel. To honor her memory gifts may be made to Camp Mak-a-Dream (campdream.org), a place where Ramona found peace and fellowship, and causes that were important to her - Center for Science in the Public Interest (cspinet.org) or Planned Parenthood (weareplannedparenthood.org).