Judy H. Bloch
January 8, 1939–February 4, 2023
Judy Bloch — lovely as her namesake, Judy Garland—was born to Clarence and Edna Hoofnagle in Detroit on January 8, 1939. After an idyllic childhood spent riding horses and vacationing on the shores of Lake Michigan, she matriculated at Michigan State University and became the first member of her family to graduate from college.
Judy moved west after her time as a Spartan, earning a teaching credential in Colorado and teaching in Denver. There, she met and married Don Roeder, who died of a brain tumor less than three years later.
A young widow, Judy moved to Marin County for a new start. She taught at Ross Elementary School and, in 1969, she met a young doctor recently returned from Vietnam. They settled in Tiburon, and once there, Mrs. Bloch dedicated herself to the community. She served as PTA president and on the Board of Trustees of the Reed Union School District, chaired the Recreation Department and the Tiburon Disaster Committee, and engaged herself in countless other volunteer efforts; indeed, the first drawing used by what is now the Foundation for Reed Schools was her work.
She likewise devoted herself to her husband and three children, who thrived under her gentle care on Reed Ranch Road and at the family ski condo in Squaw Valley.
Once the kids were grown, she re-entered the workforce, spending 13 happy years as a college and career counselor at Tamiscal, San Andreas, and Redwood High Schools. A 1989 profile in The Ark called her “a Tiburon treasure, and the world needs so many more like her.” But she was one of a kind.
For the last decade, she suffered from an increasingly severe dementia. Yet even in her deep confusion, she never lost her sweetness or the kind sparkle in her gaze.
Felled by a stroke in her family home just weeks after her 84th birthday, Judy was preceded in death by her brother Paul and her husband of 52 years, Dr. H. Spencer Bloch. She is survived by her children David Spencer, Laura Susan (Jones), and Monica Judi (Kaderali), and grandchildren David Jr., Lovela, Reagan, Sierra, Sebastian, and Devin.
The family will host a memorial service and celebration this summer at the family home in Tiburon. Gifts in her honor should be directed to The Tam District Alternative Schools Foundation (https://www.tamdistrict.org/TASF).
We have missed her for a very long time. We miss her still.