OBITUARY: Community activist reached out to indigenous people

Marybeth Brennan Scheinbaum, a well known community activist in Panama who founded a business to help indigenous artisans, died in Houston, Tuesday October 2.

Marybeth a former newspaper reporter, civic leader and community and church activist, died in the Houston Hospice after a 14-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She had spent much of the last year under out-patient treatment at MD Anderson Hospital. She was 68.

As co-founder of Arbolindo de Panama S.A., she helped indigenous artisans market crafts and jewelry for export.
Also in Panama she continued the Kiwanis work she began in Florida as a member of the Club Kiwanis Canal de Panama and the American Society of Panama.
She lived her later years in Angel Fire, N.M., with her husband of 43 years, Mark Scheinbaum.
During a long and varied career, she worked for the Julia Child television program at WGBH-TV Boston and was police reporter and feature writer for The Record of Bergen County, N.J. A frequent consultant on publishing projects, including start-ups, she worked for United Press International at the 1972 Republican and Democratic conventions, both in Miami Beach, and served as founding marketing and advertising director of Success business magazine in New Jersey.
Founder of Promotion Results in Boca Raton, Fla., Ms. Scheinbaum organized and promoted civic festivals, community events and promotions for retail stores while serving as director of promotions and public relations for WPBR-AM radio in Palm Beach, Fla.
She was active in many civic and community organizations in South Florida, at her home in Northern New Mexico and in Panama, where she and her husband, who served as a professor at Louisville Ubiversity, spent extended periods of time since 2001.
Born May 26, 1944, in Dallas, Ms. Scheinbaum graduated from Simmons College in Boston and did postgraduate work in urban anthropology and political science at the University of Florida and the University of South Florida.
As a resident of the Angel Fire, N.M., area, she was active in the United Church of Angel Fire and its ALMS and summer reading programs and participated in church activities in Raton and Taos, N.M. She supported Firewise forestry initiatives.
She is survived by her husband; sons Maj. Ross Scheinbaum of Falls Church, Va., and Gabriel Scheinbaum of Sabana Seca, P.R.; daughter Zett-Alexandra Small of Houston;
and five grandchildren.
Those wishing to make a donation in Marybeth Brennan Scheinbaum’s name can contribute to her pet charity Club Kiwanis Canal de Panama, the charity of their choice, to Houston Hospice or to the youth services projects of United Church of Angel Fire Donations also can be made to the American Cancer Society and MD Anderson Cancer Hospital.