How New Brunswick Globetrotter Inspired Generations of Students

How New Brunswick Globetrotter Inspired Generations of Students

Jane Tublin, 89, Remembered for Spearheading City's Sister Cities Program

About 300 people gathered this week to recall Jane Tublin’s vitality, sense of humor, and insatiable wanderlust that took her from a ranch in Nebraska with no electricity nor running water to Egypt, Russia, Nigeria, Korea, and dozens of other far-flung corners of the globe.

The loved ones who crowded inside Gleason’s Funeral Home in Franklin to say goodbye to Mrs. Tublin after she died May 30 at 89 said she wanted others to also experience the wonders of traveling to exotic locales and making cultural connections that transcend international borders, language barriers and preconceived notions of how others live.

It was a calling that led her to perhaps the most enduring and impactful achievement of her life – the founding of the New Brunswick Sister Cities Program and the establishment of relationships with four cities: Tsuroka and Fukui in Japan, Debrecen in Hungary, and Limerick City in Ireland.

The Sister Cities program under Mrs. Tublin’s leadership thus introduced hundreds of New Brunswick school children and residents to the people and cultures of Japan, Hungary, and Ireland.

One of them was Jill Ford, New Brunswick High School Class of 1993.

Ford and Mrs. Tublin remained longtime, dear friends going back to a three-week trip to Japan in 1991. Mrs. Tublin even led the charge to convince Ford’s grandmother that the girl she raised from birth would be in good hands so far away from home.

So, it was wholly apropos that Ford was attending a reunion at Harvard when she received the heartbreaking news of her friend’s passing because it was that trip to Japan that played such a pivotal role in her being able to enter that institution's ivy-covered walls.

“Around the time of the trip, I was getting ready to apply for colleges,” said Ford, who flew in from California to attend the funeral. “I think the distinction of being able to talk about the experience that I had on this trip contributed (to my application) to Harvard and the other schools that I applied to.

“This trip shaped my outlook on life,” she added. “It gave me a new set of questions to ask about what was possible, and did so at a time when I was in my formative years. I think that it is very much the cornerstone of my life. It changed the trajectory of my life in a phenomenal way.”

Phenomenal is a good word to describe the arc of Ford’s life since the trip.

She earned a degree in computer science at Harvard, then got her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

She ran a company in Ghana, served in global business-development roles at Disney, Motorola, HP, and Microsoft, and served as the head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the city of Detroit, where she worked with public- and private-sector partners to create programs such as the Motor City Match to fill gaps in the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Ford relocated to California in 2017 after being hired to lead Toyota AI Ventures and to help manage a $100 million fund that invests in companies that specialize in autonomous mobility, robotics, data, and other cutting-edge technology.

Two other students who were on that trip to Japan 32 years ago also attended Mrs. Tublin’s funeral, but the truth is her work affected school children from across the state.

She served 12 years on the Board of Directors for Sister Cities International. In 2000, she was appointed to serve as the group’s representative for New Jersey, where she helped other communities develop Sister Cities programs.

She served on the board of directors for American Women for International Understanding and was a charter member of the New Brunswick Cultural Center Board. She also served as director of the Central Jersey Chapter of Business Volunteers for the Arts.

Jane Simmons was teaching in France after graduating from San Jose State University when she met Dr. Robert Tublin, a dentist serving in the U.S. Army. They got married, eventually settled in Franklin, and had four children: William, Michael, Jay, and Andrea. They had been married for 50 years when Robert died in 2012.

Mrs. Tublin’s work and service in volunteer roles in New Brunswick made her a familiar presence in the community, where even after her retirement she was greeted warmly by politicians, business owners, teachers, and residents.

With her son, Michael, now running the New Brunswick Sister Cities program, new generations of city students and residents continue to experience the life-changing effects of international travel.

“When I look at the foundation that it laid for me, it just created this spark that opened my eyes to a broader way of interacting with the world, that I could have more than just a job,” Ford said. “I could have many opportunities and make deals, and transactions, in a variety of countries. That I could have friends and various activities all around the world and have a life that extended beyond just one place. I don’t know if I would have had that same awakening and the benefit of having that awakening at that time in my life had I not gone on that trip.”

Story By: Chuck O'Donnell
Photo Credit: Michael Tublin