Library Donation Celebrates the Life of Eva Jane Romaine Coombe

Allen G. Zaring IV (far left), president of the Library Foundation of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and library board trustee, is joined by the family of Eva Jane Romaine Coombe as they present a $1 million gift in her honor during the foundation’s annual donor recognition May 24. The gift—the largest ever received by the library or the foundation—will be used to endow the library director’s position. It was received from the estate of Eva Jane Romaine Coombe through the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. The late Mrs. Coombe, former director of the Friends of the Public Library, valued education, especially reading and writing; she kept a journal of books she had read since kindergarten. Joining Zaring are (from left): James Coombe, son of Eva Jane Romaine Coombe; Paul G. Sittenfeld, library board secretary and library foundation director; Kimber L. Fender, the Eva Jane Romaine Coombe Director of the library; and Tucker and Michael Coombe, daughter-in-law and son of the late Mrs. Coombe.