OBITUARIES : Blanche Bobbitt, 87; Educator, Volunteer, ‘Woman of the Year’

Blanche Bobbitt, the first woman to receive a doctorate degree in science from USC Medical School, a California “Woman of the Year” in 1987 and retired supervisor of health education services for Los Angeles city schools, died Thursday in a Glendale retirement home. She was 87.

Her professional and volunteer activities fill five pages of a single-spaced resume.

Among them are citations from such groups as the PTA, the Los Angeles County Health Assn., the American Cancer Society, the Los Angeles City Council, the County Board of Supervisors and the California Assembly.

The one-time genetic researcher, who worked her way through USC undergraduate school and then earned her doctorate in 1941, also taught science and health courses at four universities, including USC and UCLA.

Over the years she also taught and counseled at many grade levels in Los Angeles city schools before becoming science and mathematics supervisor and then health supervisor in 1952.

Since retiring in 1963, she had devoted hundreds of hours to the March of Dimes (she was credited with raising $80,000 for genetic research), the American Cancer Society and the Glendale Symphony. Each year she had donated a musical instrument to Glendale schools to lend to children who could not afford one of their own.