Community important to Theo Lumia

Theo Faber Lumia’s life was filled with family, volunteering, the arts, nature and church, recalled friends who knew her.

“She was an absolutely delightful woman with a worldly view and an eye for the arts and she was that way until just a few short days ago,” said Frank Conyngham, a close friend of Lumia’s son, Taylor. “We had dinner recently and Theo was in great spirits.”

Lumia, a resident of Bear Creek Village, died on June 23 at the age of 74 at her home.

Those that knew her say she was a complete person who joined causes for all the right reasons – to effect positive change.

“She was a soldier and she was fun and she had a wonderful sense of humor,” said Betsy Condron of Kingston, a longtime friend. “She always got great results.”

Condron said she spoke to Lumia about a week before she died and she talked about many community projects she was involved with and she talked about her family.

Theo Faber moved to the Wyoming Valley in the 1950s when the family business, the Eberhard Faber Pencil Co., relocated to the Mountain Top area. She and her late husband, Lt. Col. Salvatore Albert Lumia, were stationed in Germany from 1958 to 1961. When the Lumia family returned to the Wyoming Valley, Theo was actively involved in the Junior League and volunteered at the Grant Street School for disabled children for many years. She was instrumental in merging the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre symphonies into what is now the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, for which she served on the board of directors.

She was on the board of Volunteers of America (VOA) for many years and helped to start the original VOA Thrift Shop on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre. She was a board member of Children and Youth, where she helped to coordinate a Christmas gift-giving program for children between VOA and the First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre. That church on South Franklin Street was designed by Lumia’s maternal great-grandfather – Josiah Cleveland Cady. The Rev. Robert Zanicky, pastor at First Presbyterian Church, said Lumia was “a devoted and wonderful member” of First Presbyterian Church.

Condron said Lumia learned the importance of community involvement from her mother, Julia Faber. “First, she was a wonderful mother and grandmother,” Condron said. “She was very proud of her family. Theo was always very upbeat, even though she faced difficult challenges herself during her life.”

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Daughter of Eberhard Faber loved the arts and volunteering.

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