Alice Cumba

UFT Admin September 17, 2025

Retired teacher

Alice Cumba loved being a teacher, and that joy extended beyond her workday as a longtime math teacher, delegate and chapter leader at IS 145 in Queens, where she had worked for 16 years. She also taught technology in the Jackson Heights school’s after-school program, and, after her retirement in 2008, she continued teaching the subject at the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter’s Si Beagle Learning Center in Queens. Alice died of a heart attack on Sept. 17, 2025, at the age of 72.

“Alice was a fantastic person and a very close friend,” said her colleague Pascale Jutard, who taught French at IS 145. “She was always very calm, well-spoken and supportive, not judgmental. She was there for everybody,” which made her well-suited to the role of chapter leader.

“Her students loved her and stayed in touch years after she had taught them and years after she had retired,” Jutard said. While middle school students are sometimes thought to be difficult to teach, Alice had ways of reaching them.

Alice’s focus was always larger than her subject area. She brought her students as well as Jutard along to help with fundraising for multiple sclerosis, AIDS and breast cancer walks on weekends. Students were enthusiastic to join, and Alice also took them on historical trips, including visits to Ellis Island and other local sites. “She was the one organizing this at school, even though it had nothing to do with math,” Jutard recalled. “She asked me to help, and I just followed her.”

Alice loved people and she loved to travel, Jutard said. After 30 years of teaching, she retired at age 55 with a goal of visiting every continent — and she did.

“We started to travel together; our first trip was to France. Her last trip was to Antarctica,” Jutard recalled. Alice traveled with other friends and family as well, visiting countries in Europe and South America, as well as Morocco and Egypt in Africa, China in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Alice was part Taino and had Indigenous people among her family members. She enjoyed going to powwows, reveling in the culture and making connections with other Indigenous people she met, Jutard said.

Alice is survived by her daughter, Juhari; son-in-law, Milciades; grandson, Brian, who brought her great joy and made her proud; and her sisters, Angelique and Julie.