Long-time CSUB friend and benefactor Millie Ablin, who spent much of her life promoting the arts and higher education in Bakersfield, died Monday afternoon in her northeast home of lung cancer after a month-long battle.
She was 77.
“Millie was a philanthropist,” Michael Chertock, vice president for university advancement of CSUB, told the Bakersfield Californian.
“She supported so many things in our community, not only with her resources but with her time and energy.”
Mille and husband George, who died of cancer in 1999, were instrumental in fund-raising campaigns that helped build and expand the libraries at Bakersfield College and CSUB.
Millie served for years on the Cal State Bakersfield Foundation board of directors and was chair of the fine arts committee.
Ablin was a true leader, said Joan Dezember, who has known Ablin for about 30 years.
“She was a shining light for me and I’ll miss her dearly,” said Dezember, herself a former chair of CSUB’s Foundation Board.
In lieu of flowers, the Ablin family requested contributions be made in Millie Ablin’s memory to one of the following: the Excellence in Teaching Award and Endowment a the CSUB Foundation; the Bakersfield College Foundation; Friends of Mercy Foundation; Bakersfield Symphony Foundation; or Bakersfield Museum of Art Capital Fund.
Services for Ablin are pending.
Runner@csubak.edu