Barbara M. Wolvovitz

Barbara Wolvovitz died on Sunday April 5,2026 from a very aggressive form of non-smokers lung cancer. Barbara is survived by her son Michael Ari Wolvovitz Lobel, her husband John Marx and her sister Ethel Wolvovitz.

Barbara was a civil rights lawyer, and later in life a poet, as well as a loving, dedicated and amazing mom to her special needs son Michael.

Barbara graduated from Rutgers Law School in 1978 and worked for the National Office of the National Lawyer Guild in New York City after graduation. She then went on to become a housing attorney in New York which she felt was some of her most significant work, being “able to empower tenants who really felt powerless”.

In 1984 she moved to Pittsburgh and became an associate with the law offices of Tom Henderson, litigating the voting rights case against the city of Pittsburgh which challenged at large elections of city council members, alleging that it diluted the influence of black voters. The case resulted in the present system of council members being elected by district.

While Barbara was involved in many important and path-breaking cases in her legal career, one of them resulted in her getting national and international fame. She was one of the attorneys in a civil rights case being tried in Federal District Court in Pittsburgh before Judge Teitelbaum, who threatened her with jail unless she used her husband’s name in the courtroom. She refused to do so, asserting her right to use her own name, even if it meant going to jail. Her stand in the courtroom became front page news in every newspaper throughout the country and even in Europe and far-flung places like Australia. The Judge quickly backed down and eventually was forced to apologize.

That incident and her courageous stand sparked the development of the Women’s Bar Association of Western Pennsylvania to address gender issues women lawyers faced in practice. Twenty years later, the Women’s Bar Association honored Barbara Wolvovitz with the Susan B. Anthony Award that it presents annually to an individual in the legal community for their dedication and work to preserve women’s and minorities rights.

Barbara went on to become the Legal Director of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and an associate with the law firm of Feldstein Grinberg Stein & McKee, which specializes in civil rights, employment discrimination and personal injury cases. She continued to litigate impactful cases, successfully representing female juveniles who were sexually molested by a male employee at a youth detention center in New Castle, and obtaining compensatory and punitive damages for a young black man who was illegally stopped by the Pittsburgh police who put their guns to his head and held him to the ground.

However, for the last almost half of her life her main passion was not the law, but taking care of, advocating for, and aiding her special needs son, Michael Lobel. She was a devoted and dedicated mom to Michael, an advocate for him, and a force in the disability advocacy community. She took on a part-time arrangement at the law firm, in order to devote more time to her son. As she put it, “it takes a lot of time and energy for what is essentially case management of my son’s school and after-school programming.... I wanted to be an important part of his life, advocating on his behalf.” And advocate on his behalf she did with passion. She achieved her goal of playing an important role in his life, taking him to musical shows, doctor’s appointments, cooking him dinners – even when he reached adulthood. She worked closely with The Friendship Circle, an organization based in Squirrel Hill, whose mission is to build a more inclusive community, and which has done a remarkable job in providing friendship and community for Michael and many others. Michael misses her enormously.

Barbara loved (and cooked) good food, and enjoyed reading, theater, and travel - all of which helped inspire her poetry, especially a trip with several Lawyers Guild friends to South Africa.  But most of all, Barbara was as fierce a friend as she was an advocate for Michael.  She will be sorely missed.  Donations in Barbara’s memory should be made to The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh. Arrangements by John A. Freyvogel Sons, Inc. (freyvogelfuneralhome.com)

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