Jack and Barb Snobble agreed to join the Holdens on the CRMS faculty soon after the founding and arrived in 1955.Barb had graduated from Vassar College and wanted to teach History and Latin. Jack,  a bomber in World War II and handy with explosives, would take students with him for avalanche mitigation detonations. He’d taught previously at Fountain Valley School and then worked  as a geographer for Central Intelligence. He was also captain of the Dartmouth ski team and an accomplished rider–skills that come in handy at CRMS. The Snobbles served as pillars of the school’s community until leaving not long after the Holdens in 1969.

Obituary

Barbara Frances Morris Snobble, worldwide traveler, devoted teacher, avid jazz fan, and much-loved mother and grandmother, died Feb. 17, 2020, in Niceville, Florida. She was 93.

Barbara was born March 9, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Robert H. and Marie Morris. She grew up in Highland Park, Illinois and spent childhood summers on the farm in Kansas. She graduated from Vassar College, New York, in June 1946, where she studied history, Greek and Russian. She married John “Jack” Snobble (in ski gear!) on March 27, 1947, in Aspen, Colorado. They lived in Europe, Washington, D.C., and Colorado, where they raised four daughters and were married nearly 50 years. Jack Snobble died in 1996.

Barbara spent childhood summers on a farm, and later raised ducks and peacocks. She also loved Benny Goodman and Coleman Hawkins; as a teen she snuck into Chicago jazz clubs and danced to Big Bands with friends. Barbara was a dedicated student of history; at 18, she joined the Daughters of the American Revolution and remained an active member most of her life. She was also a founding member of the Roaring Fork chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society and traveled extensively in the 4 Corners area.

She taught Latin, comparative religion and history at Colorado Rocky Mountain School from 1955 to 1969. She and Jack Snobble instigated Spring Trip at CRMS. The first week in May the Whole school explored the 4 Corners area of the Southwest with their car leading the way. In 1971 she began teaching Nature Writers at Colorado Mountain College until 1984, when she became the librarian at Gordon Cooper Library in Carbondale, Colorado. She retired from the library in 1992 or so.

Barbara loved to travel. After she and Jack married, they spent three years living in and traveling through Europe. While there, she began collecting dolls, a hobby she continued most of her life. During the summer of 1965, she traveled through Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey; every two weeks, she sent home boxes of dolls to her children. Later, she visited Syria and Egypt and led a six-week study tour through Yucatan in 1974. In 1987, she traveled to China, her lifelong dream.

Barbara enjoyed the theater and performed with the Carbondale Light Opera Company in the 1970s and 1980s. She also loved to read, garden, and collect souvenirs from her travels. She became engaged to Richard “Dick” Allenby in 2003, a childhood friend of hers and college roommate of Jack Snobble. After living for decades in Carbondale, Colorado she and Dick moved to Florida to be closer to her daughter, Cristi. He died in 2017 in Florida.