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Kober was her own worst enemy. Even given the constraints of her time and that she was a woman and Jewish, she didn't seem to be able to free herself mentally from the constraints of the city university system after having graduated from Hunter where she worked during grad school and her life-long employment at Brooklyn. For all she espoused sharing, her publication of only three articles was problematic. I understand that Brooklyn didn't reward that (and I have no issue with the colleges of the city of New York that they saw their mission as teaching), but I have to think the lack of a paper trail hurt Kober when she was competing for the job at Penn (even though it was a longshot).
Unfortunately, she seemed rather to despise her students; you'd think they might have been a fantastic resource for the grunt work of her efforts. But she preferred to be secretive, hunched over her dining table every night, even as she deplored the lack of time. Yes, she was a perfectionist, but that wasn't realistic especially given the limited sample she had.
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