Obituary: Rubin “Rube” Boxer

August 6, 1927 – April 13, 2026
(Reuven ben Menachem Mendel v’Gluckel)

Rubin Boxer was born in the heat of a Coney Island summer in 1927 to Max and Lillie Boxer, Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe. Max worked as a tailor and pattern cutter in New York’s garment district while Lillie provided a warm and loving home. Rube grew up one of four children in a poor but comfortable kosher household in Brooklyn. A gifted student from the start, he skipped several grades in elementary school.

Rube went on to study electrical engineering at Cooper Union in Manhattan. His education was interrupted near the end of World War II, when he enlisted in the Navy at just 18 — proud to step up and do his part, ready for whatever was asked of him. The war ended not long after he joined, but the family has always been proud that when the moment came, he didn’t hesitate. He returned to his studies afterward and earned a Master’s degree in Engineering at Syracuse University, becoming the only member of his family up until that time ever to graduate from college.

In 1946, Rube met Pearl, the love of his life, on the beach in Coney Island. His parents right away adored her so much that they lobbied for the two to marry — and even gave Pearl a bedroom in their house to keep her close, a room that had belonged to Rube’s younger sister Grace, then only fifteen or sixteen to Pearl’s eighteen. Grace wasn’t thrilled to give it up at first, but she came around quickly enough once it was clear her brother had found the love of his life. Rube and Pearl married in 1949 and immediately moved to Dayton, Ohio, for Rube’s new job. Their honeymoon, as the story goes, was simply Dayton itself.

A few years later the family moved to Rome, New York, where their children Diana and Rob were born. In 1957 they relocated to Hempstead, Long Island, where twin sons Ken and Warren arrived. Finally, in 1958, with two young children and newborn twins in tow, Rube and Pearl made their last move — to Santa Barbara, to the house on the Mesa that would remain their home for the rest of their lives.

The Boxers quickly became pillars of the Santa Barbara Jewish community and longtime leaders at Congregation B’nai B’rith. Rube was serving on the synagogue board in 1960 when he was nominated from the floor to become president during a tumultuous and transitional period in the congregation’s history. He shepherded the synagogue through two pivotal years, with Pearl at his side as its great ambassador and greeter, and an active member of Sisterhood and Hadassah.

Though highly accomplished in his career, Rube was, above all, devoted to his family. He retired relatively early, at 62, but retirement never meant slowing down. He filled his days with fishing off the pier, afternoons at the beach and at Lake Cachuma, camping trips, jogging and running, bicycling, riding mopeds, following the horses, inventing and patenting his own creations, and teaching himself computer coding and programming — always chasing the next problem to solve. He was also a devoted regular at Mesa Cafe, Harry’s, and Palazzio, his son Ken’s restaurant.

In 1992, Rube and Pearl faced the greatest tragedy of their lives when their son Warren passed away after a long struggle with HIV/AIDS. Rube threw himself into researching the disease, desperate to find any way to prolong Warren’s life. Though he could not save his son, he never stopped believing in telling Warren’s story, and he remained a committed supporter of the search for a cure.

Pearl passed away on July 15, 2024, after 75 years of marriage and companionship — the kind of devotion that belongs in a movie. Rube rarely left her side in those final days, sitting with her and holding her hand until the end. Together they were a team, one that always included their four children.

To the end of his life, Rube loved nothing more than talking about his children, recounting his long and remarkable history, and telling his endless repertoire of jokes. He was, in every sense, generous, welcoming, and unfailingly positive.

He is survived by his children, Diana Rumelhagen (Rohn), Robert Boxer, and Ken Boxer; his grandchildren, Shanna Rosenthal-Torres (Shawn), Jenna Rosenthal, and Dagny Boxer; and his great-grandchild Isla Rosenthal-Torres.

A funeral service was held on April 16, 2026, three days after his passing, at Santa Barbara Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Congregation B’nai B’rith.

The post Obituary: Rubin “Rube” Boxer appeared first on Santa Barbara News-Press.