Barbara "Bobbi" Saiff's Obituary
Bobbi Saiff, 87, passed away peacefully on June 1. Born February 13, 1936, in Bronx, NY, she grew up in (what was then the farming community of) Monmouth Junction, NJ. At 16, she met her future husband of over 66 years, Ivan, at a dance in nearby New Brunswick. After graduating nursing school in Newark, she and Ivan wed in 1956. Bobbi and Ivan settled in Edison, NJ where they raised their sons Bill and Barry. She helped Ivan found his nearby Highland Park pharmacy, Saiff Drugs, in 1963.
Bobbi worked for a few years as a floor nurse in what was then New Brunswick's Middlesex General Hospital (where her husband, and then her two sons were born). After her sons' early years, she worked as a nurse in the--at the time, brand new--Head Start program. She then moved back to Middlesex General as an OR nurse, rising into nursing and OR management. Having started at 15 as a 'candy striper' volunteer, she had been associated with what is now Robert Wood Johnson Rutgers University Medical Center for 50 years when she retired in 2001. That year, Bobbi and Ivan moved to Destin, Florida. Since 2005, they have lived in Boynton Beach, Florida where they were very active in social and community organizations.
A loving and beloved wife, mother, sister, aunt, and friend, Bobbi is survived by many relatives and friends, including her husband, Ivan; sons and spouses Bill and Elzbieta (Mazur), Barry and Ferdinand (Tabuyan); and sister and brother-in-law Betty and Marty Siegel. Bobbi is predeceased by her parents Abraham and Esther (Kogelman) Dobin, and many brother and sisters-in-law.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Bobbi's honor to the Southern Poverty Law Center (https://www.splcenter.org/) or The Hunger Project (https://thp.org/).
Funeral services will be held on Tuesday June 6, 2023, at 12:15 at Beth Israel Memorial Chapel, 11115 Jog Road, Boynton Beach, Florida with a burial to follow at Eternal Light Memorial Gardens, 11520 State Road 7, Boynton Beach, Florida.
The family will be (casually) sitting shiva following the burial until 6:30pm, and again on Wednesday from 2pm to 6:30pm.
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