A Fighter’s Spirit Lives On

DETROIT

Gloria C. Cobbin, 63, former International vice president, recently lost her four-year battle with cervical cancer. But her fighting spirit — spurred by a lifetime of advocacy — is a lasting legacy.

Cobbin passed away in February in a city that teems with workers whose lives she had touched in many ways. As director of the Collaborative on Offender Training and Employment, a city-funded program, she took on the formidable task of finding jobs for ex-offenders. As chairwoman of the 15th District Democratic Party, she coordinated the largest get-out-the-vote campaigns in the state for years. And as president of the Detroit Board of Education — the first African-American woman ever elected to the position — she advocated for programs that would enable more individuals with disabilities to hold elected offices.

"The Gloria I knew was always fighting for what she believed in," said President McEntee, who joined Secretary-Treasurer Lucy at a memorial service attended by more than 500. He cited her arrest during a protest at The Detroit News to support its strikers.

Cobbin became an AFSCME member in 1962, shortly after securing employment in the city’s Human Rights Department. She worked as a payroll and personnel clerk for 15 years. Prior to her election as an IVP, she had served as executive vice president of Local 1329 and political action coordinator of Council 25. She also assumed leadership positions in the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO.