Rohna A. (Isaacson) Shoul

SHOUL, Rohna Anna (Isaacson), age 93 of Northampton, passed away peacefully on October 24, 2019. She was surrounded by her children and their families who hold her core values as guiding stars in their own lives. She left the greatest legacy a person can have: a life of integrity that became a model for her children and grandchildren.

An early environmentalist, she co-founded the Green Decade Coalition and volunteered on several committees in Newton. She protested nuclear testing and was arrested in 1986 with Daniel Ellsberg at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. She was active for 50 years in the Democratic Party because she knew that unless people were active citizens, the freedom that enabled everyone to have satisfying lives would disappear. She protested lynchings in the South during the 1940s. As Rohna's message on her answering machine said for her last twenty years (no matter how annoying for those who had heard it for the 400th time): "Keep working for peace and social justice, it's more important now than ever before."

Rohna was a champion mother. Her one goal in life was to create a world rich in conditions that would enable her children and all other children to have good lives. She co-founded “Voice of Women” one of the earliest women's groups protesting the Vietnam War. These groups preceded the student anti-war movement and she did this because she knew a world of war was a world where her children and all other children would suffer.

Despite the challenges of growing up poor in Lewiston, Maine and the West End of Boston, she became a truly resilient woman who was known for her cheery disposition and respect for all people. She was an early feminist who knew the value of her own thinking. Rohna's strength to persist came from the unconditional love of her mother, Rebecca. She graduated from Bates College and earned a Master's Degree in Social Work from Boston University and was a Medical Social Worker at Boston City Hospital when she met Melvin who was a surgeon there. They soon married and after raising three boys she worked as a school social worker at Day Junior High School in Newton.

Rohna is predeceased by her family that came to this country escaping the pogroms in Ukraine during the early part of the last century: her dear mother Rebecca Isaacson, her aunts Sonia and Gussey, her first cousins Mildred and Celia, and her beloved grandfather Rabbi Sharfman of the North Russell Street Temple in the West End. She was also predeceased by her husband Dr. Melvin I. Shoul and her son David. Rohna leaves her son Mark Shoul and his wife Ruth Suyenaga; son Paul Shoul and his companion Diane Porcella; grandson Kenji Shoul; granddaughter Maile Shoul and her husband Sean Nolan; and great-grandchild Margaret Shoul Nolan.

Graveside services for the family are on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. at the Temple Emanuel Memorial Park, 490 North St., Randolph, MA. A celebration of her life will be held in Northampton at a future date. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the ACLU (www.aclu.org) and the Democratic Attorneys General Association (www.democraticags.org).