Ruth Bean

Ruth Bean died August 29th at Friends Care Assisted Living in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Ruth was born in Glen Ullin, North Dakota and lived to the age of 101. She knit mittens for soldiers in WWI, played piano for silent movies and taught school in a one-room prairie schoolhouse. She moved to Yellow Springs in 1943 taking a teaching position at the Dayton Street School before starting work for the Fels Research Institute in Yellow Springs. Through this job she came to know all the “Fels families” enrolled in the Institute’s Longitudinal Study of Human Growth and Development.

She was a white-water-rafting enthusiast, had an avid interest in nature and was a long time supporter of the Glen Helen Association, receiving the Association’s Volunteer of the Century award. She also volunteered for many years at the Four Oaks School in Xenia for children with special needs. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and served on its board of deacons, and was a long-standing member of the Yellow Springs Shakespeare Club, the Library Association and the Historical Society.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her brothers Morris and Charles, her sister Blanche, her niece Anita, her sister-in-law Xarifa and her great nephew, Leonard Bean. She is survived by her nieces and nephews, Doris Bean, Hadley Bean, Jennifer Alverson Leslie Williams and their spouses and children, and locally by her nephew Rodney Bean, his wife Michelle Giguere, and their children Erik and Kirsten.

A memorial visitation will be held from 6-8pm Thursday, September 2, 2010, at Neeld Funeral Home, 1276 N. Detroit St., Xenia. A memorial service will be announced for Ruth at a later date.

In recognition of her lifelong love of children, donations in her memory may be given to Y.S. Community Children’s Center Endowment at the Yellow Springs Community Foundation. Condolences may be made to the family at www.NeeldFuneralHome.com.