Ruth Joanne Weber, daughter of Peter K. Chuboff and Lydia J. Chuboff nee Schadwinkel and widow of Theodore Weber, died peacefully at home on July 4th at age 94. It was Ruth’s wish to continue enjoying her beloved house on Tweed Boulevard until she drew her last breath, just as it had been Ted’s wish a decade earlier. Both of them were fortunate enough to do so.

All those who knew Ruth were impressed by her force of character and by her intellectual acuity, articulateness and seemingly encyclopedic memory. She was a person firmly committed to her principles, steadfast in her religious faith. Particularly as she advanced into her nineties, people were constantly startled that Ruth’s faculties and vitality were so undimmed. Friends also praise her warmth and generosity and her willingness to chat with and encourage young people.

Ruth’s life spanned some of the darkest and brightest periods in America’s past century. That backdrop surely spurred her aspirations but also reinforced her practicality and religious faith. Ruth was born on the eve of the Great Depression and attended high school while the country was in the throes of WWII, but it was during the ensuing optimism of the 1950’s that she made all the choices that would define her adult life. She graduated from New Jersey College for Women AKA Douglass (now Rutgers) and began teaching high school in Tarrytown. She married her sweetheart Ted whom she had met before college, and together they designed and built their house in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. This was at a time when Tweed Boulevard was still unpaved and Ted and Ruth crossed the Hudson by ferry to oversee construction because the Tappan Zee Bridge had not yet been built. Next, Ted took the leap of founding his own company based on his patents for precision-engineering of cams. And before the decade was done they brought two daughters into the world, Joanne and Karyl. It was only much later when both daughters were in college or grad school that Ruth retrained and worked for a few years as a computer programmer for Simon & Schuster.

Ruth and Ted were known for the active role they played in Upper Grandview and the surrounding area throughout their 7 decades of residence. They were founding members of the Upper Grandview Association and for many years managed and maintained a system that pumped water to residents on their road. They advocated for quality education in local schools. Ruth was proud to have traveled to Albany to urge the passage of the STAR program designed to protect seniors from losing their homes due to rising taxes. Likewise in the spirit of economic conservatism, Ruth had the courage to present oral arguments in court to block a local project she considered spendthrift. Another core priority of Ruth’s was the health and natural beauty of the woods on Clausland Mountain, and she argued eloquently against any proposed change she felt might degrade its ecosystem.

Ruth and Ted delighted in travel and culture. Their two daughters accompanied them even at a very young age on trips to explore the great art museums and cultural heritage of Europe. Over a lifetime they sampled other destinations. In the 1980s they visited Ukraine while it was under Soviet rule and took a Trans-Siberian Railroad journey to Mongolia.

Not least, Ruth was a tremendously dedicated, generous and loving mother. She prepared a feast for every holiday and made sure the extended family gathered for many happy summer vacations when the children were young. The Webers’ home life also revolved around education. Ted and Ruth delighted in teaching their daughters everything from trigonometry to Shakespeare at a much earlier age than was customary, and expected them to aspire to the finest education through university and beyond.

Ruth is survived by her daughters Joanne Firth and Karyl Weber and by her sister the Reverend Esther Chuboff.

It was Ruth’s wish that her ashes simply be scattered at the Weber family plot where Ted’s were scattered.

In lieu of flowers, friends wishing to honor Ruth’s memory are invited make a small donation to any charity serving humanitarian needs in Ukraine, which was the birthplace of Ruth’s father. (Highly-rated worldwide charities with operations there include Doctors Without Borders, World Vision and Project Hope, or a suitable charity specific to Ukraine might be one such as Razom for Ukraine.)