Julia L. Dubin, 91, a social worker and teacher who chaired a committee at a White House Conference on Aging 30 years ago, died Monday, Jan. 1, in Whitehall North Nursing Home in Deerfield from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. Growing up when many of her peers raised a family instead of seeking a career, Mrs. Dubin was determined to work as hard at her job as her late husband, Eugene, a structural engineer. “She was fiercely independent,” said Mrs. Dubin’s nephew, Martin David Dubin. Her accomplishments eventually were noticed by then-Illinois Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie, who recommended her for chairman of the technical committee on services of the White House Conference on Aging in 1971. After graduating from Englewood High School in 1926, Mrs. Dubin went to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. She graduated with a bachelor’s in English as a Bronze Tablet scholar, which marked her academic accomplishments as the top 2 percent of all Phi Beta Kappa students, her nephew said. After she moved to Washington, D.C., with her husband in 1933, Mrs. Dubin continued her studies at Catholic University and American University. She was first employed in the public assistance division of the Board of Public Welfare in Washington. In 1946, the Dubins returned to Chicago where Mrs. Dubin received her master’s in social work from the University of Chicago. She soon was named as assistant to the deputy commissioner in the service bureau of the city’s Welfare Department. She later joined the American Public Welfare Association, retiring as director of the association’s project on aging in 1970. In addition to her nephew, other survivors include her brother-in-law, Robert, and his wife, Elisabeth. Services are private.
