Victim Of Fatal Accident In Princeton Remembered As 'Warm, Thoughtful'

PRINCETON, NJ — The woman who was killed in an accident in Princeton Tuesday evening was described as “warm, friendly and thoughtful” by a longtime colleague on Wednesday.

Leslie Goodrich Rubin, 62, of Princeton, was hit by a cement truck while she walked through the intersection of Nassau Street and Washington Road at about 5 p.m. Tuesday. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ralph Allen, 60, was identified as the driver of the truck involved in the accident. On Wednesday afternoon, Princeton Police Sgt. Fred Williams said the investigation was moving forward, but there were no new details to release.

Rubin was a political science professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa. She worked at the university with her husband, also a political science professor.

“She enriched the whole university, especially the Political Science Department,” said Dr. Clifford Bob, the chair of the university’s political science department. “Students got a great deal from her classes.”
Rubin’s area of expertise was American Political Development and Political Philosophy, where she related ancient thinkers such as Aristotle to the Founding Fathers and Constitutional thinkers.

She wrote on Aristotle’s “Politics,” Xenophon’s “Education of Cyrus,” and Flannery O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge.”

Bob was friends and colleagues with Rubin and her husband, Charles, since he arrived at the university in 1999.

Leslie Rubin met her future husband, Charles, while in a political theory program at Boston College, according to the Duquesne Duke, the university's school newspaper. They got married in 1981, then began their careers together at Kenyon College. They both transferred to Duquesne in 1987, and had two children together. Leslie Rubin retired a few years ago, Bob said.

Charles Rubin had taken a visitor professorship for the academic year at Princeton University through the James Madison Program, according to nj.com.

The Princeton Police Department requests that anyone who witnessed the crash contact Traffic Safety Bureau Supervisor Sergeant Thomas Murray at 609-921-2100 ext. 1879.

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