Lois Trowbridge Brockman

Lois was commonly called Trowby by her friends and family. This was because her mother was also named Lois.

Her father was the son of a bank owner in Waterbury, CT. and a long line of New England settlers and businessmen and a Revolutionary War privateer owner. Her mother was descended from Irish immigrants who settled in various New York and Connecticut towns as tradesmen.

Trowby went to both public and private schools in Waterbury and Watertown. She went to nursery school at Mrs. Ashworth's home in Watertown, with her main coursework taken at St. Margaret's School where she graduated in 1965. A short period of summertime high school time was spent on church mission work in Minneapolis and Los Angeles. See Media for a newspaper interview with her about that trip.

She attended Skidmore College in New York for two years, in the Class of 1969. Later she completed a BA degree at Roosevelt University in Chicago with coursework in women's studies, education, training and wrote several thesis on homelessness. She was awarded a Certificate in Online Training from California State University, Hayward. This was conducted online of course. She had additional Insurance Institute certificates in Loss Control and Underwriting.

In 1967 she married Richard Maddox Combs II in Watertown and moved to New York City with her husband. They lived on Beekman Place in the townhouse of Richard's grandmother Kate Merle-Smith. This is believed to be the same home that William L Shire rented and lived in during World War II. Richard was in training as a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch following in the footsteps of several ancestors.

A desk opened for him in the Portland, Oregon offices and the couple moved there, residing in Lake Oswego and Beaverton. Their first child, Richard Maddox Combs III was born there in February 1969.

Shortly after the birth of Richard III Trowby's mother-in-law Katherine Smith Combs Merle-Smith Thomas offered her and her step sister in law, Judy Smith, a round the world PanAm Flight #2 trip to the Far East, India, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Chiang Mai and a few stops that started in New York, went to Paris, Tehran, New Delhi, Saigon, Tokyo and some other places.

She regarded this as her life changing experience, not so much as the scenery she viewed which was extraordinary but for the human beings she observed and met in the cities and countrysides of the world. The main purpose of the trip was to attend an International Women's Council meeting in Bangkok to which her mother-in-law was a delegate. She became acquainted with many interesting women including Dorothy Height during the Conference.

After the conclusion of the trip of a lifetime she continued living in the Portland area and had her second child, Katherine Powell Noland Combs in February 1971 in Beaverton.

Returning to the East Coast with her children, she selected Cohasset Massachusetts as her home town to be near her parents, then living in Hull, Massachusetts.

Trowby became employed while her parents could babysit. She was a technical recruiter with a small firm in Back Bay Boston. From there she was hired by Kemper Insurance in Quincy, Massachusetts as an analyst. She recruited herself.

Trowby's business career evolved over 26 years with Kemper Group to a final position as Manager of technical training and development in the home office in Long Grove Illinois, near Chicago. She was responsible for disaster training at the various branches of Kemper and Lumberman's Mutual Insurance. After the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 she initiated, put into place and managed escape plans for employees, especially for these high rise office workers such in the Twin Towers. At the start of the second attack on September 11 all Kemper employees left their desks, slipped on their walking shoes, grabbed their personal items, and rushed down the stairs to the street and out of harm's way.

Her working career at Kemper Insurance and Lumberman's Mutual Insurance covered management of several departments of analysts, trainers, course developers and delivery systems up to and including online offerings.

She married Dan Berwin Brockman on 1 September 1979 at her Aunt Rhoda Cozy's home in Watertown Connecticut and became the stepmother of two boys, Mark and James, age 16 and 13. She and Dan spent the next four decades working and raising children and most of all having fun traveling the world and enjoying cruising, fine dining and wine discovery.

She was a highly regarded Barrington, Illinois community leader with volunteer positions on the Board or as a President of the Barrington Area Arts Council, Barrington Association of Professional Women, NAMI Illinois, Countryside Garden Class, Collector's Club, Condominium One, and the Board of the Lake Barrington Shores Community Association, her home for 22 years. She was a Member of the Union League Club of Chicago, Skidmore College Alumni Club, and Roosevelt University Alumni Club.

Additional memberships were in clubs and organizations that fit her interests in genealogy and history. She was a qualified member of the Flagon & Trencher Society due to her ancestor Ezakiel Howe being owner of the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, MA.

She and Dan traveled by land and sea to many places. California wine country became a favorite place to stay for weeks at a time after she retired from Kemper. Cruises also were an enjoyable way to spend a couple of weeks. From Hawaii to Alaska to Panama Canal to Istanbul and Greece were some of the ports and countries covered over the years.

Her personal motto was "If it isn't fun I'm not doing it". She loved a dog named Winkie, a Keeshond.