RUTH FRANCES SARIS

SARIS, Ruth Frances (Clayton) Beloved Mother, Artist, Community Leader Age 92, died on December 27, 2018. She was the wife of the late Dr. Morris S. Saris, a Boston area dentist. Together they resided for more than forty years in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. After his death in 1981, she married the late Edwin Wolfe of Milton, Massachusetts in 1990 and lived with him in Weston and Brookline until his death in 2010. She has been a summer resident of Hull for over 60 years and had lived for the last five years in independent living at Newbridge on the Charles in Dedham, Massachusetts. Ms. Saris has been a lifelong member of Temple Israel in Boston where she was confirmed and married. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, she attended Brookline High School, and the Beth Israel School of Nursing. She served as President of the League of Women Voters, Boston Chapter from 1971-1973 and was a member of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus. From 1970 through 1975, Ms. Saris was appointed by Governor Francis Sargent to the Advisory Council for Comprehensive Health Planning and the Governor's Committee on the Status of Women. During that period she also served on the Board of Directors of Boston Harbor Associates. Always a lifelong learner, Ms. Saris matriculated at the University of Massachusetts where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1982 and went on to work for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the John F. Kennedy Library. She organized multiple seminars, symposia and debates for mayoral candidates in 1983, Senatorial candidates in 1984 and governor candidates in 1990. Ms. Saris had a true passion for the arts, and has exhibited her paintings of vibrant flowers and seascapes of sunsets over Hingham Bay in art shows on the South Shore. She was a silversmith, attending many workshops at the DeCordova Museum and completing many silver pieces. She was an active artist up until her death and passed down many of her art and silver pieces to her children and grandchildren. In addition, Ms. Saris loved classical music, frequently attending the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ruth Saris is survived and much loved by her children, Patti Saris of Brookline, Massachusetts, the Chief Judge of the Federal District Court of Massachusetts, and her husband Professor Arthur Segel of Harvard Business School; Linda Saris of Swampscott, Massachusetts, the Executive Director of the non-profit LEAP for Education in Salem, Massachusetts; Dr. Stephen Saris of Sharon MA, a neurosurgeon in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and his wife, Dr. Renee Eger, Medical Director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Care Center at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. She has seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, all who loved her dearly. She is also survived by her sister Vivian Goldberg of Hull. She was the sister of the late Frederick Clayton of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts and Herbert Clayton of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Services will be held at Temple Israel, 477 Longwood Ave, Boston, Massachusetts (parking on the Riverway), on Sunday, December 30, 2018 at 12:00 followed by the interment at Sharon Memorial Park in Sharon, Massachusetts. Memorial observance at the home of Dr. Stephen Saris, Sunday, 3:30-6:00 pm; at the home of Patti Saris, Monday, 12-5:00 pm; and at NewBridge on the Charles, Sunday, January 6, 2-4 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions in her honor may be made to LEAP for Education or the Boston Symphony Orchestra. LEAP for Education, 35 Congress St. Suite 102, Salem, Massachusetts 01970 (www.leap4ed.org), helps low income and first-generation students improve in school and graduate from college, and enter a career that matches their strengths and interests.