Donna Rubens, Age 88

Donna Rubens began teaching at PS 63 in Manhattan in 1966, teaching K-3 classes there until she transferred to PS 235 in Brooklyn, where she taught pre-K until her retirement. She loved teaching children to read. She would run into former students decades later on the streets of New York who remembered her.

Donna also taught art using puppets and collage to graduate students at the Truro College School of Education.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in education and psychology from the University of Michigan in 1953. Later, she earned a Master’s degree in Art Education from Brooklyn College in 1973 while working full time as a teacher and a second Master's degree in Liberal Studies during a sabbatical year at CUNY Graduate Center.

Donna was also a painter and, especially after she retired, a poet.

She is survived by her three children and their spouses, Mira Ruth Rubens and Peter Landy, Rachel and Michael Leinweber, and Jesse and Bonnie Rubens, as well as her eight grandchildren Hannah, Maya, Alexandra, Daniel, Elliott, Emily, Jenna and Perry.