Obituaries

Stephen J. "Doc" Roberts, who as an undergraduate, led Cornell's polo team to its first national championship and then, as a veterinarian, coached the team to eight national championships, died in Bath, N.Y., Jan. 21, of heart failure. He was 89.

Roberts

Roberts coached the Cornell polo team between 1947 and 1972, and his teams participated in 14 national championships, winning eight in 25 years. (The winning years: 1955, '56, '59, '61, '62, '63 and '66.) He was the captain of the team when he was an undergraduate.

He developed innovations in intercollegiate polo that remain to this day. To balance the competition of the sport, Roberts introduced the concept of "split strings" at the intercollegiate level. Visiting teams no longer have to transport their own horses to distant matches. Instead, the home team provides mounts and the horses are exchanged between chukkers.

As a Cornell professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and veterinarian, he authored over 150 scientific articles and a classic textbook in 1956, Veterinary Obstetrics and Genital Diseases, which was published in three editions -- the final one in 1986. He was among the early Vet College faculty members to advocate a research component in faculty appointments, now a common practice.

Roberts served on the Judicial Council of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), and he was a charter diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists. He was an associate editor of the Veterinary News and provided years of service to the Cornell Veterinary Alumni Association. He received the prestigious national Borden Award from the AVMA for his research on cattle disease, the Distinguished Service Award from the New York State Veterinary Medical Society and the Salmon Award.

Born in Indianapolis on Aug. 5, 1915, Roberts grew up in Hamburg, N.Y., where his father, James Roberts, Cornell D.V.M. 1912, practiced veterinary medicine. Stephen Roberts earned his doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1938. While a student at Cornell, he enrolled in the ROTC field artillery unit and captained the polo team to its first national championship in 1937.

In 1938 he moved to Manhattan, Kan., where he taught veterinary medicine and earned his master of science degree. In 1942 he joined the faculty at Cornell. He was named a full professor in the Department of Large Animal Medicine, Obstetrics and Surgery in 1946 and served as chairman of the department twice: 1965-66 and 1969-72. Roberts retired from Cornell in 1972 to go into private veterinary practice in Vermont.

Roberts is survived by his wife, Ruth Shipman Roberts, of Bath, N.Y.

A memorial service will be held at Cornell at a future date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to either the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development, P.O. Box 728, Ithaca, NY 14853, in his memory, or to the Doc Roberts Fund for Polo, Attention: John Webster, Cornell University Athletics, Teagle Hall, Campus Road, Ithaca, NY 14853.

Jessica Govea Thorbourne, a labor educator with Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in New York City and a founding organizer of Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers (UFW) Union, died Jan. 23 of breast cancer at age 58. She played a central role in making the UFW one of the nation's most formidable labor organizations.

Govea Thorbourne was featured in part two of the PBS series titled "Chicano! The Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement" in 1996 and in the PBS documentary "The Fight in the Fields" in 1997.

Govea Thorbourne went to work at age 4 in the cotton fields of Kern County, California. In 1966 at age 19 she began full-time work with the UFW and worked closely with Chavez and other union leaders over a 16-year period. In 1968, she helped engineer two of the union's most effective boycotts of California table grapes in two of their largest markets, Toronto and Montreal. The boycotts led to the union's signing its first contract with a California grape grower in 1970. Govea Thorbourne rose to become national director of organizing for the UFW and, in 1977, was elected to the union's national executive board. She also headed up several of the union's voter registration and get out the vote operations.

In recent years, Govea Thorbourne became a labor educator, helping to train the next generation of union organizers. For the past five years, she directed the Labor In-House Programs for Cornell ILR School's Division of Extension and Public Service in New York City. "Among the most rewarding parts of her work on Cornell ILR's Leadership Development Campaign was assisting -- through interpreters -- Chinese speaking home-care workers to become trainers," said colleague Ken Margolies, an ILR senior extension associate.

In 1990, she helped develop a New York City pilot project to train city council candidates and campaign managers from underrepresented communities. She also worked closely with Central American workers in the U.S. refugee community. She was a passionate public speaker and a naturally gifted singer, known in union circles for her renditions of songs of hope. Her work and her bravery were recognized in 1994 when her image was included in the mural "Maestrapeace" on the Women's Building in San Francisco.