Ruth Pastor

Ruth Pas­tor, 90, of Delaware and a Mar­ion Manor res­i­dent since early Decem­ber 2010 passed April 1, 2011, in Marion.

One of eight, she was born Jan. 28, 1921, in Detroit, Mich., to the late Earl and Gladys (Hask­ins) Fairchild. They lived in Wyan­dotte, Mich., where Ruth was grad­u­ated from Roo­sevelt High School and was a mem­ber of the First Con­gre­ga­tional Church. She and James Pas­tor met by chance through a mutual friend and mar­ried in 1941, first liv­ing in Wyan­dotte and then mov­ing a few miles out of town (now South­gate, Mich.) until Jim’s retirement.

Fol­low­ing Jim’s retire­ment, Ruth and Jim moved to Hale, Mich., where they built an A-Frame, fronting on a small lake in a state for­est. Liv­ing there for the next 15 years, Ruth fully appre­ci­ated the beauty of the chang­ing sea­sons in that set­ting and enjoyed observ­ing close-up on a daily basis God’s crea­tures that shared their env­i­ron. In addi­tion to join­ing a local church, they were active in the Senior Cen­ter and Ruth took paint­ing lessons from an artist friend.

Com­ing full cir­cle, they returned to city liv­ing when they relo­cated to Delaware so as to be near their two daugh­ters. Ruth, again, adapted her activ­i­ties to the area. Join­ing Zion United Church of Christ, she sang in the choir for a num­ber of years. She enjoyed sev­eral years of mem­ber­ship in the DAR, serv­ing as chap­lain, and re-entered the work­force, join­ing a friend as a sea­sonal employee at Cub­berly Studios.

Fam­ily gath­er­ings, music and her faith in the Lord gave Ruth plea­sure and peace. She stayed in touch with folks, no longer liv­ing in close prox­im­ity, through let­ter writ­ing. When­ever the oppor­tu­nity for travel arose, Ruth was eager to go, whether it was a cross-country drive, an hour road trip, or a domes­tic or inter­na­tional flight. She loved life and every amaz­ing facet of it. Grate­ful for her many bless­ings and striv­ing to live her life in keep­ing with the teach­ings of the Chris­t­ian faith, Ruth was very phil­an­thropic in her later years. She truly believed it was bet­ter to give than to receive and walked the talk, con­tribut­ing to numer­ous char­i­ta­ble causes and social issues.

In addi­tion to her par­ents, an aunt and all of her sib­lings, Ruth was pre­ceded in death by her lov­ing hus­band of 54 years and her eldest child, Bon­nie Ruth Rogers.

She is sur­vived by her other chil­dren, Jean Marie Hoff­mann of Mar­ion and Dr. James Earl (Deb­bie) Pas­tor of San Diego; niece, Gail Foltz Ander­son, of Rich­mond, Va., who joined their fam­ily at age 8 after the pass­ing of her mother (Ruth’s sis­ter Vir­ginia); and son-in-law, John L. Rogers of Delaware. Other sur­vivors include five grand­chil­dren; a fos­ter grand­child; great-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, (Ellen); Jim’s cousins (the Szaki girls), whom she regarded as sis­ters; and numer­ous nieces and nephews.

A memo­r­ial ser­vice will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, June 25, at Zion United Church of Christ, 51 W. Cen­tral Ave., Delaware, with the Rev. Jon Peter­son offi­ci­at­ing. The fam­ily will greet friends in the church base­ment dur­ing the hour prior to the start of the ser­vice, where they will be invited to share in a light meal.

Memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions may be made to Zion UCC, 51 W. Cen­tral Ave, Delaware, OH, 43015 or any orga­ni­za­tion sup­port­ing our troops or mil­i­tary vets would pay Ruth proper homage, as would think­ing of her as you plant flow­ers or put out food for the birds that visit your yard.

Robin­son Funeral Home, Delaware, is serv­ing the fam­ily of Ruth Pastor.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Jun 21 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.