Lois Mae Hobson

Lois Mae Hobson passed away on February 2, 2026. She was the wife of Ambassador Princeton Lyman, a retired career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. She had one daughter, Donna Lynne Hobson, from a previous marriage to Donald Lewis Hobson. She has one grandchild, Danica Lois Rowe Wilson and son-in-law Richard Wilson, a great grandson, Aiden Wesley Wilson one living sister, Connie Bobbit; and numerous nieces and nephews. Born March 10, 1938, in St. Louis, Missouri, she was the oldest girl with 7 brothers and 2 sisters. She graduated from Vashon High School in St. Louis and later moved to Newark, New Jersey in 1958 where she completed a B.S. in 1960 from Newark State College (now Kean University). She moved that same year to Detroit, Michigan where she worked for the Detroit Board of Education. After receiving her Master’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1968, she moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked briefly for the Office of Economic Opportunity and other agencies within the U.S. Government. In 1971, she joined the Africa Bureau of USAID where she managed a program introducing minority-serving university and college level students to working abroad in international development. Her experience in USAID and the Office of Environment, Science and Technology in the Department of State fostered her career in international work. Following a year of language study in Lille, France, she joined Africare, a non-profit organization in 1989 where she established a program for black South African graduates of U.S. colleges and universities, helping them obtain experience and training in the U.S. prior to their return to post-apartheid South Africa as new professionals. She lived in South Africa for several years, returning to the U.S in 1996 where she accepted a position with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to direct an exchange fellowship program between math and science professors from minority-serving universities and NASA scientists. In 2000, she served as a Peace Corps Country Director, completing tours in Zimbabwe and Namibia respectively. She retired from the U.S. Government in 2005.