Walker, Ruth

Ruth Walker, 91, a homemaker, guidance counselor and lifelong Cedar Rapids resident, died Tuesday, April 17, 2012, in the Woodlands Care Center at The Meth-Wick Community.

Ruth Margaret Rich was born Nov. 25, 1920, to Guy C. and Grace Rich. She graduated from Franklin High School in 1938 and from Coe College in 1942. She married Gordon Walker in 1943. She studied at Columbia University in New York as Gordon served with the U.S. Army Air Force in England during World War II. She earned a master's degree from the University of Iowa in 1964. She was a counselor in Coggon in the North-Linn school district beginning in 1964 and at Marion High School from 1966 until retirement.

Ruth was a member of St. Paul's United Methodist Church, where she and Gordon were active in the Family Fellowship Class for 60 years. She volunteered for church and community projects and was an active citizen. She followed world and local news and the baseball scores every day on WMT Radio and in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. She often called The Gazette to commend an editor or reporter on a particular story or to ask a follow-up question. She was an election worker at Johnson Elementary School.

Her primary love was her home and family. She lived most of her first 80 years in the same house on Washington Avenue. She grew up there, left after college and returned to raise her own family there in 1954. She and Gordon moved to Meth-Wick in 2001.

The family supper table was the centerpiece of her life. A home-cooked meal and conversation provided a warm and unifying conclusion to the day. Aunts, uncles and cousins were frequent guests at the table, as were Sunday school and bridge club friends and ladies from the neighborhood. She loved the written word. She read novels and biographies. She kept a journal and wrote letters once a week to her children. The clatter of her manual typewriter was a familiar sound of home. In later years, she made a humble attempt to convert to a word processor, then returned to a longhand script with apologies that her writing was hard to read. Her great wish was to share ideas and stay in touch until the next family gathering.

Gordon died in 2010. Ruth's survivors include their son, Timothy (Wanita) of Independence, Mo.; daughters, Catherine of Broomfield, Colo., and Margaret (Eric Hendrickson) of St. Paul, Minn.; son, Jonathan (Karen) of Sioux Falls, S.D.; eight grandchildren, Justin, Christopher and Julia Walker, Jonathan Bringewatt, and Annie, Sarah, Laura and Rebekah Walker; and four great-grandchildren.

Her brother, Guy L. Rich, died in 1996 and sister, Grace L. Rich, in 2005.

Visitation will be from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 27, at Cedar Memorial Park Funeral Home, 4200 First Ave. NE. Her funeral will begin at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Cedar Rapids.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to support St. Paul's Church.

Published April 22, 2012 in The Gazette