Ethel Combs
hether she’s baking bread or bustling about abroad, Ethel Combs M’67 is sure to always do one thing—keep moving. “I’m always busy,” she said. “I don’t like to sit still and certainly have not since retiring.”

Having first attended Glassboro as a graduate assistant while pursuing her master’s degree, the former elementary school teacher joined the Reading Department after graduation. “Teaching a child to read is one of the most important things you can do,” she said.

Combs then pursued her doctorate at Temple University while both teaching courses and serving as a clinician (she eventually became director) at Rowan’s Reading Clinic specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of reading problems. “It took me 13 years to get all three degrees,” she said. “I would get up at 3 a.m. to study. There was no such thing as a social life.”

Since her retirement in 1995, Combs remains as busy as she’s ever been. Many afternoons consist of lunch dates with former students and colleagues or tending to gardens, either in the backyard of the Wenonah home she shares with her husband, Jim, or at the local nursing home where she volunteers and helps patients plant flowers. “I’ve been a gardener most of my life,” she said. “I even completed a six-month Master Gardener Program in 2003.”

Despite Combs’ many personal hobbies, she and her husband share a common passion: traveling. “So far we’ve been to 47 countries,” she said. Their most recent trip to England involved a walking tour on the south east side and attending the Chelsea Flower Show. “The flowers there were unbelievable,” she said. “We don’t have flowers that bright around here; there was just too much to see.”

As for now Combs has been sticking close to home helping her husband recuperate from recent surgery. “We still have places to go to when he’s feeling better,” she said. “I want to go to the Galapagos Islands and he wants to go to Hawaii. We’ve been lucky to have had all that time up until this point with no health problems. I really can’t complain.”

A mother of two, grandmother of four and aunt to many, Combs also enjoys spending time with her family. She is constantly sewing, knitting (mostly baby blankets for pregnant nieces) and reading anything that falls into her hands. She also bakes bread from scratch nearly every day. “I love bread,” she said. “Especially freshly baked bread; I could live off of it.”

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Alumni can honor retired faculty by donating to a scholarship fund and other investment. Call Anne Hagan at 856-256-5402 or visit the Rowan University Foundation.