Rhoda Rubin, co-founder of Long Island's first Weight Watchers franchise, dies at 94

When Commack’s Rhoda Rubin and a friend founded the Long Island franchise of Weight Watchers in 1965, "second-wave feminism" was a nascent concept. But like the suffragists of the first wave, Rubin helped demonstrate women’s capabilities in the workforce over the decade of upheaval and change.

"In the ’60s, there were not a lot of women working as entrepreneurs," recalled Fran Posner, of East Northport, a friend since 1977 when Rubin hired her as a Weight Watchers coach. "She was such an inspiration. She taught us a lot about being assertive. ... She helped us grow and stretch out of our comfort zones. It was the best career. And Rhoda made us all feel important and like family."

"She just had a way of being there for the people who worked for her," said her son, Richard Rubin, who joined her business in 1972 and decades later became CEO of the family’s Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard in Calverton. "She never really had much in the way of work experience" before co-founding the local franchise of the now international diet-and-exercise corporation, "but she was always very intuitive."

Rubin died Jan. 15 of natural causes at her home. She was 94.

Founded by Queens housewife Jean Nidetch in May 1963, Weight Watchers, now WW International, was only beginning to franchise when Rubin and Elaine Schaefer, who each had lost weight under the program, brought it to Long Island two years later. Nidetch, by then a TV personality, attended the franchise’s first meeting, at the Suffolk Jewish Center in Deer Park on June 3, 1965.

Even with that draw, Rubin still "was shocked when 26 people showed up," having expected far fewer, said one of her daughters, Sharon Levine. "And then it just started to snowball." Levine would spend 27 years as marketing director, with other siblings contributing to both this business and the vineyard.

Rubin bought out Schaefer in the mid-1970s and, in 2006, with her son by then her executive vice president, sold her franchise back to the parent corporation.

Part of her success, said her children, came from the force of her personality. "Charismatic, always with a big, bright smile and very optimistic," said Levine. But Rubin also was not afraid to innovate.

By the early 1980s, Posner said, "A lot of women were now working outside the home." And while the usual 8 p.m. workshops still were popular, "She felt strongly that when women are working all day, they're not going to go home, prepare dinner and then feel energized enough to go out at night. She said it'd be better if they can catch a meeting on the way home. And she devised these 5:30 afternoon meetings. People were against the idea, but Rhoda stuck to her guns" and the expanded schedule proved successful.

After selling the franchise, Rubin turned her attention to what had been her husband Sam Rubin’s hobby, Baiting Hollow. They and their children turned the vineyard into a major North Fork attraction before selling it and closing an affiliated horse-rescue farm in 2020.

Born Rhoda Sydelle Jablowitz on June 15, 1931, in Brooklyn, she was the youngest of four children of Sol and Jennie Levenstein Jablowitz. She attended New Utrecht High School in her borough and then Brooklyn College for a short while.

She and newspaper truck driver Sam Rubin married in early 1949, according to New York City marriage license records, although the family celebrated the date as Nov. 27, 1948. In 1961, they and the first three of their eventual five children moved to Deer Park, where Rhoda ran an at-home nursery school and wrote about Deer Park goings-on for The Islip Bulletin newspaper. They later moved to Melville. Sam Rubin died in 2014.

Balancing entrepreneurship and family life, Rhoda Rubin would "come back from work, beautifully dressed, with heels on, having to go out at night, but she'd stop and make dinner," Levine said. "And my friends adored her. There was always an extra baked potato in the oven just in case a friend stopped by."

In addition to her son, Richard, of Naples, Florida, and daughter Sharon Levine, of Commack, Rubin is survived by daughters Janet Rubin Tunis, of Farmingville, and Carolyn Rubin, of Commack; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Paula Rubin Geonie, died Oct. 1.

A service for Rubin was held on Jan. 18 at Gutterman's Funeral Home in Woodbury. Burial took place the same day at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont.