James Cobb, 88, improved Georgia hospitals

James Cobb helped modernize Georgia’s health system in the 1970s and 1980s. As deputy director of the Georgia Regional Medical Program, he was instrumental in creating intensive care units for premature babies and in separating ambulance services from mortuary services.

Mr. Cobb, 88, of Atlanta, died Monday at Altus House Hospice of complications of Parkinson’s disease. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Saturday in the chapel of the Church of the Apostles. H.M. Patterson & Son, Arlington Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Cobb graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1943 and was a career U.S. Army officer, retiring as a colonel in 1971. He met his wife, Jean Cobb of Atlanta, in the 1940s while she was working as an engineer on special weapons projects in New Mexico.

After their marriage, the couple moved 20 times as his military career took him around the world, his wife said. Throughout their marriage, they enjoyed dancing the jitterbug and other big band-era dances, she said.

Mr. Cobb worked for the Georgia Regional Medical Program from 1971 till he retired in 1985, his wife said.

The Cobbs also were founding members of the Church of the Apostle and held weekly Bible study classes in their home.

Other survivors are three daughters, Justine Glover of Cumming, Jeanine DeVaney of Charlotte and Jamie Maddox of Greenville, and seven grandchildren.

— Kirsten Tagami