Lillian Rubin

Lillian Rubin (nee Perlmutter, and preferring the name, Lil) passed away at her home at the age of 97 on August 31, 2014 surrounded by those who loved her. Born in Brooklyn, NY she has lived in Maywood, NJ for 67 years, since 1948. She was the co-founder and co-owner with husband, Len, of the Maywood weekly newspaper, Our Town from 1948 until their retirement, after 44 years, in 1992.

Beloved wife for 73 years, of Len; devoted mother of Ted and wife, Janis of Glen Valley, California and daughter Debbie Ames and husband Jeff or Broad Brook, Connecticut; loving grandmother to Jessica, Abby and Daniel.

She was a remarkable doer. At the same time, she was homemaker to the family, business manager and advertising salesperson for Our Town Newspaper, secretary of the Maywood Chamber of Commerce, edited and sold advertising for Robert Ludlum’s Playhouse on the Mall Playbill and was a correspondent for the weekly Jewish Standard, having had 4 cover stories and receiving a state press award for a deadline-written story, shared with the Standard editor.

Lil received her bachelor’s degree in science form Hunter College earning her a teaching license and a master’s degree in biology sciences from City College of New York. During Len’s service years in World War II, Lil lived and worked in the areas he was stationed such as having taught Chemistry to high school students in Henderson, Nevada outside Las Vegas when Len was stationed there; assistant at a medical library in Denver, Colorado; staff of Officer’s Training school in Santa Anna, California, etc.

She was a lover of nature, reading and music, particularly of the piano, having once played a piano duet with a professional teacher at an SRO (standing-room-only) concert at the Maywood Library. In addition to the piano, Lil played the recorder. She was a long time member of the Ridgewood Chorale, a 40-person women’s chorus where she sponsored a $1,000 scholarship for a college-age composer of an original piece of music.

She taught ESL (English as a second language) in the Hackensack school system for several years and tutored an Israeli 8-year old, who came to this country unable to speak a word of English and went on to win the school spelling bee a year later at her next school in Washington state.

Lil had a feature article published in the New York Times and was proud of having named Len’s 3rd book, “My First 91 Years”.

She was well-loved and will be missed by many.

Funeral services were held Friday, September 5th at 10am at Gutterman-Musicant Funeral Home in Hackensack, NJ followed by burial in Beth-El Cemetery, Forest Avenue, Paramus, NJ.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in her memory may be made to the Macular Degeneration Foundation at www.macular.org