Shirley Ann Newcomb

Professor Shirley Ann Newcomb passed away peacefully Monday morning, October 16,2016 in Moscow Idaho where she had lived since leaving her home town of Cambridge Nebraska in 1949.

Shirley was born on June 30, 1923 to Leila Lodica Babcock Newcomb and Kenneth Ralph Newcomb. She grew up with her older sister Jennette in a very loving family. She graduated from the University of Nebraska in dietetics and, after teaching at Cambridge High School the year after the flood, she was recruited to teach home economics at the University of Idaho by Margarete Richie. Shirley promised Margarete two years and staid and taught for 40.

At the U of I she was well loved by thousands of students and was highly respected by her peers, friends and neighbors. In addition to full time teaching responsibilities, Shirley established the Consortium Coordinated Undergraduate Program in Dietetics which provided practicum placements in regional hospitals which allowed participants to take the exam to become registered dietitians without having to go to another university. She served on state and national boards and committees to further dietetics and participated in the first People to People Dietitians exchange with New Zealand and Australia. Shirley served three years on the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Advisory Board on Child Nutrition. In her lifetime in Moscow, Shirley was awarded to U of I Alumni Awards for Faculty of Excellence, the School of Home Economics Alumna Award, the June Yerrinton Idaho Dietetics Association Outstanding Dietitian, The University of Nebraska Distinguished Alumna Award, the state Idaho Treasure Award, the School of Family and Consumer Sciences Centennial Award and the U of I College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Deans Achievement Award. Shirley was a charter member of the Margaret Ritchie distinguished Speaker Committee, worked on local Boards for the hospital and the Latah Rehabilitation Facility.

Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, Leila and Kenneth Newcomb, her sister and brother-in-law Jennette and Warren Zwink and her nephew, Michael Lee Zwink. She is survived by a niece Pamela Zwink Holliday and her husband Robert Johns of Beaufort NC, and three great-nephews and their partners: Scott and Paula Zwink of Seattle, Kevin Zwink and Brenda Lehman of Wichita and Kirk Zwink and Liza Vella of Macon Missouri.

A graveside service will be held at 11:00AM on Monday, April 24th at Fairview Cemetery and afterwards folks are encouraged to go to the Congregational Church for conversations and lunch graciously provided by the women of the Church.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts could go to the Shirley Newcomb Dietetics Scholarship Endowment at the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83843

Shirley was a woman who loved people, loved a good laugh, loved to travel and she told a really good story. When I was a teenager, Shirley was attending summer school at Columbia University working toward an advanced degree. At the end of the term, she would fly me to New York, treat me to shows, Jones beach and we would travel home through Washington DC and Williamsburg and our great countryside. I had my first oyster with Shirley, my first soft shelled crab, I much later years, she treated my husband and I t wonderful trips with her through the Rockies, Yellowstone, the Canadian Rockies, a trip including my nephew Scott to the San Juan Islands and a cruise up the Inland Passage and on to Denali.

Shirley, and my mother Jennette, were AVID Cornhusker fanatics! They gave each other subscriptions to Husker Magazine for birthday gifts and listened to Husker Huddle on a small town radio station. They wore their rugs out during the games pacing, encouraging or covering their eyes during key plays. They knew the stats of every player and what they weighed in high school!

And she was generous beyond spoiling family. She bequeathed the University of Idaho over 100,000 dollars for a scholarship endowment for single parent students. She contributed to Eastern Star, the Moscow Theater and made many other charitable affairs.

And she was a dear friend to many for a lifetime. Betty and Bob Lockenour were friends for life as were their children Patti and Monty, Ms Margaret Ritchie was a dear friend for life, Warren Newcomb, Maxine and Winton Newcomb and so many friends from Shirleys childhood in Cambridge were friends for life. She was loyal to her friends and ethical in her life. We had a memorial for Shirley in Moscow and 80 people attended and almost 80 people stood up and told a touching or funny stories about Shirley but so many of her former students talked about how she taught a unit on ethics but she demonstrated those ethics in every class and in every way.