Christine Williams Ayoub was born on Feb. 7, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio and died on July 18, 2024 in State College, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of the late William Lloyd Garrison Williams and the late Anne Sykes Williams. Christine was born in Cincinnati because that was her mother’s hometown and so she returned there to have her children, Christine, and 18 months before that, Hester.
Christine grew up in Montreal near McGill University, where her father was a mathematics professor.
Anne Williams was a pianist, a story writer and a connoisseur of art, so the year Christine was to start school, she took Hester and Christine to Rome for the year. She ended up putting them into an Italian boarding school and saw them on the weekends. We loved to tease Christine whenever there was something in Italian, asking her to translate, because although she had learned Italian, she forgot every word of it.
The next year, she started second grade at a French school because her father thought she should learn French. In subsequent years she alternated between attending French schools and English schools and became quite fluent in French. She failed one grade (2nd) and skipped two others. She graduated from Trafalgar High School for Girls in 1938 at age 16.
Christine and her sister Hester, who preceded her in death, were very, very close. One of the family’s favorite stories is the Christmas story in which they would start Christmas Eve morning by making panuche (a brown sugar fudge) and then they would go down to Saint Catherine Street and shop for all of their Christmas presents and get a tree at a bargain price since it was last minute. They would drag the tree six blocks home, light the tree, sing Christmas carols, and read the Christmas cards, which her father would save to read all at once.
In her graduating year, Christine had the highest score on the McGill matriculation exam, but instead of McGill, she chose to go to Bryn Mawr, which gave her a good scholarship. She enjoyed her time at Bryn Mawr, majoring in mathematics and in fact quite recently, she went back for her 75th reunion, leading the parade as the oldest graduate present and sitting with the president for dinner!
She liked to tell the story of the summer that World War II had started, and there was a freeze on money so her father could not pay her Bryn Mawr tuition. She had recently been given a black Raleigh bicycle and she decided to ride to the capital, Ottawa, 125 miles from Montreal, to plead her case. She was successful and was able to return to Bryn Mawr for her sophomore year.
She graduated from Bryn Mawr at the top of her class and went on to Radcliffe to get a Master’s degree, McGill to get a second Master’s degree and Yale to get a PhD, the only woman in the class. Finally, she arrived at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, where she would pass Albert Einstein in the hall from time to time.
During the years that she was back and forth to Montreal, her father was teaching a young man by the name of Raymond Ayoub. She met him several times and eventually he was invited to a vacation on Cape Cod with them and she got to know him and they fell in love. Christine and Ray married on July 1, 1950, Canada Day, in Montreal. Ray’s relatives went up into the mountains to pick flowers for the wedding. At the time of Ray’s death in 2013, they had been married for 62 years and no one could dispute that it was truly a match made in heaven.
In 1952, the Ayoubs moved to State College for Ray and Christine to join the Penn State Math Department. Shortly after, in 1953, their first daughter, Cynthia Anne, was born, and almost three years later, Daphne Nazeera. Christine loved teaching at Penn State and had the opportunity to teach many different courses and to help the young department develop. She sponsored several PhD students, one of whom was completely deaf and unable to speak and yet obtained his PhD with her help.
They remained in State College for the remainder of their lives. During their working careers they took a number of sabbaticals, one of which was to Oxford where Hester lived.
Shortly after settling in State College, Christine and Ray joined the State College Friends Meeting and were active in the Meeting for many years. Christine was a lifelong Quaker descended from generations of Quakers. When interviewed, she said that what she thought was important in life was how one lived one’s life. She was also very attracted to the Quaker testimonies of simplicity and integrity.
In 1984 the Ayoub’s took early retirement from Penn State to go to the Middle East and teach. During 1984-85, the Ayoubs spent the year in Saudi Arabia; Two years later, in 1986-87, the Ayoubs spent the year in Bethlehem. Subsequent years were spent in Morocco, Syria, and finally in Jordan in 1995. Christine became very engaged with the female students and was a great role model for them. In Rabat, Morocco, they lived in an ancient walled city right on the ocean.
Starting in 1985, the Ayoubs began work on founding the retirement community that became Foxdale. They got together with a group of members of the Friends Meeting who were interested. By 1990, “the miracle on Marylyn Avenue”, Foxdale Village, was complete.
In 1997, the Ayoubs moved into a Foxdale apartment. During those years, Christine became active in chairing the oral interviews committee and conducted many, many oral interviews. She published many of them in her book, Memories of the Quaker Past. She also was a dedicated volunteer for the VITA program, which was a program to assist people with their income taxes.
Christine was a lifelong Bridge player and loved the game. In her young married days, she and Ray would play bridge with a Quaker group which ironically was called the Rowdy Crowd. She instilled her love of the game in her daughters. After Ray’s death, one of her activities was teaching Bridge at Foxdale and for Ollie and she had many eager students. She also attended several “bridge camps” with her daughters and her engaging personality made her the hit of the group.
Christine had an opportunity to relive her birth date. On 2/7/22, she turned 100 years old. Her daughters had a big party for her. She looked forward it to it for months and took great pleasure in all of the details of planning for it. The family is lucky to have many beautiful pictures of her at the party.
Friends and family will remember Christine for many things: her wry sense of humor, her sweetness, her generosity, her intellectual curiosity. During the last days of her life, Christine was engrossed in working on a puzzle entitled the 12-coin problem and gave the solution to her many admirers. She also kept her sense of humor til the end. When one of the nurses asked her what time she would like to have her breathing treatment, which she hated, she asked the nurse what time she got off to which the nurse replied 10 PM. Christine said well what about midnight?
Christine is survived by two daughters, Cynthia Harris and Daphne Schreiber (Robert); four grandchildren: Benjamin Schreiber (Cara), Brian Schreiber (Timea) Christopher Harris, Julia Harris-McCline (Jamall); and seven great-grand children: Carmelo Harris, JaMya McCline, Jordan Schreiber, Lila Schreiber, Laszlo Schreiber, Jamall McCline, Jr and Annika Schreiber. She also has a host of cousins, nieces, great-nieces and nephews and great great nieces and nephews who mourn her passing.
The family will be eternally grateful for the Foxdale staff who lovingly and competently cared for Christine, especially in the final days of her life.
Christine’s Quaker Memorial Meeting will be held in the Foxdale auditorium, 500 E. Marylyn Ave., State College on Saturday, August 17 at 2 pm. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Foxdale Village, 500 E Marylyn Ave, State College, PA 16801 or to the State College Friends Meeting, 611 E Prospect Ave., State College, PA 16801.