Bobbi has been married to Irwin (that’s what it says on his license, but everybody calls him Irv) Schrob since 1968. Irv is a fellow Weequahic alum from the January class of ’63. The couple takes extreme pride in their four children, Michael, Alison, Brian and Andrew. Irv is the president of E&I Sales, Inc., a building materials supply company, while Michael is a Product Manager at Becton Dickinson, a medical supply company. Alison followed her mother’s example and currently teaches fifth graders. Brian, her twin, operates his own FedEx Route and Andrew is involved with inside sales for Anixter, a telecommunications distributor.
When she’s not busy teaching, mothering and wifing, the former Miss Bierbaum enjoys reading, playing Mah Jong and spending leisurely hours in Bradley Beach. No wonder then, that that’s where her children dedicated a bench in her honor on Ocean Avenue near Brinley in recognition for the source of solace and comfort she has been to them. “Everyone is invited to sit on my bench,” she says.
If all this has a familiar note because it sounds pretty much like your life, read on. This is where things get interesting.
A few years ago, Irv was diagnosed with a kidney disease and was slated to receive a transplant. Blood tests among family members failed to yield a matching donor so Irv was put on a waiting list. Not content to sit and wait, Bobbi and healthcare professionals began the search for an alternative solution.
It all ended happily when Bobbi was found to be a match for a kidney patient in Pennsylvania whose husband happened to be a match for Irv. One day in late 2003, Bobbi, Irv and the other couple entered the hospital. Bobbi’s kidney was successfully transplanted to the other patient and that patient’s husband’s kidney was transplanted to Irv (you many need to re-read this to get it all straight).
Today, all members of this kidney exchange are healthy and have returned to their normal, active lives. See, good things do happen to good people.
Bobbi counts that day among her happiest, along with the birth of Michael, her first son.
She has been recognized by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, as a kidney donor and is the recipient of the 2004 Support Staff Award for Central School in East Brunswick.
Hoping for grandchildren in the years ahead, Bobbi plans to continue teaching and promoting organ donation. She may be reached at schrbb@aol.com,
