Richard Barry Ruback, B.A., J.D., M.S., Ph.D.
March 29, 1950 - July 14, 2022
State College, Pennsylvania - Barry accomplished more during his life than most people can ever hope to accomplish. He was a very loving, generous, interesting and wonderful gentleman who was dearly loved, is already missed and will always be cherished by those of us who remain to share our memories of him.
Barry was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Norman and Mary Piha Ruback. He is survived by his wife, Jasmin and their daughter Miriam, his brothers Albert and Stephen Ruback, and his sister in law Batsheva. His nephew Yonatan, his wife Nechama and their children, Barry's great nephew and niece Nachman Yehoshya and Lia Miriam. His nephew and nieces Rachel, Akiva, Avigayil, Yehuda, and Ariella. His nephew Tamri and his wife Tracey, and his great nephew and nieces Zoe, Aiden, and Isaac.
Barry will be greatly missed by his Aunt Emily Piha Birnbaum and his cousins Rita and Michael Lusk, Larry and Lynne Birnbaum, Steven and Ashley Birnbaum, Meyer Birnbaum and Carolyn Wills, Marilyn Wice, Sarah and Dick Adams, Linda Dennery, Michael Lieberman, Morris Cohen, Janet Wice, Barbara and Alan Levin, Ilene and Mark Goodman, Alan Piha, Michael Piha, Karen Piha, and Jean and Howard Gordon.
Barry once wrote that one of the happiest moments of his life was being admitted to Yale where he met his best friends Beth and Mike Wolak, Bill and Lorraine Elliott, Alan Cohen, Alan Gaby, Bernie Erb, and Nathan Wise. However, the happiest moments of his life were finding and marrying his soulmate, Jasmin Riad and becoming the father of his beautiful, intelligent and charming daughter, Miriam.
Barry's career highlights include Professor of Criminology and Sociology at Penn State University where he loved to teach, write, and mentor students. He was also a Visiting Fellow, National Institute of Justice, a U.S. Supreme Court Fellow assigned to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. He enjoyed his research in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Fulbright Fellow, Fulbright-Hays Fellow, Indo-American Fellow, South Asia Regional Fulbright Fellow and National Science Foundation). He was also honored with the Tom C. Clark Award. He has numerous scholarly publications and books.
Barry was very dedicated to Congregation Brit Shalom where he served as a board member, Vice-President, President, and Past-President.
Barry enjoyed traveling with Jasmin and Miriam, especially to national parks, monuments, presidential homes and battlefields.
Services will be provided by Congregation Brit Shalom on Monday, July 18 at 2:00. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to Congregation Brit Shalom, 620 E Hamilton Ave, State College, PA 16801.

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Published by Centre Daily Times on Jul. 17, 2022.

Memories and Condolences
for B.A. Ruback

9 Entries

Janak Pandey

July 18, 2022

We pray for eternal peace to the departed soul of Professor R. Barry Ruback. We Urmila, myself, and my family have been in shock to know that Barry took heavenly on July 14, 2022. Barry has been part of our family for more than three decades. During his Fulbright Scholar Visiting Fellowship at Andhra University in the mid-1980s, Barry visited Allahabad. Our research interest related to studying environmental stressors brought us together, which later developed into a significant project that we continued for nearly three decades. In addition to academics, we both discovered that we are down-to-earth people. Barry always wanted to live like ordinary people during his visit to India. He would prefer to travel on a second-class railway compartment and state-owned buses. He wanted to see what was happening at the ground level and how people coped with daily life hassles. Our interest in studying environmental stressors (e.g., population density, crowding, noise, air pollution, garbage) seemed most relevant and directly connected us with ordinary people. We loved to work with people in their real-life contexts, neighborhood, slums, villages, traffic, and big religious congregations, covering other countries of South Asia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. The project was very productive, resulting in numerous excellent publications and presentations in national (in India) and international conferences. A vegetarian, Barry loved Indian food. Urmila loved to have him for dinner/lunch as she did not do any special preparation. He just loved what we ate routinely.
He learned Hindi to communicate with people and for his authentic participation in the development of questionnaires and understanding of responses of research participants. During the fieldwork, we remained available on the site to the interviewers. He loved working in villages and a big congregation. He visited my village home and had conversations with my elder brothers. and family. Our prayer is for all strength to Jasmin, Mariam, and family to bear this hour of grief and tragedy.

James Quigel Jr.

July 18, 2022

My sympathies go out to Barry's family and extended loved one. I am saddened and shocked. Over the past several years I've only known Barry as a devoted and energetic swimmer at the Penn State Natatorium--both humble, intelligent and always positive in manner and speech. I speak for many in our informal noon swim club, that we sorely miss him already.

Mary Dabbs

July 18, 2022

Even though I haven't been able to see him often in the last several years, I liked knowing he was well and happy and doing good things. I am especially grateful that I got to see Barry and Jasmin recently and have a wonderful memory of that visit.

Janak Pandey

July 18, 2022

" We pray for eternal peace to the departed soul of Professor R. Barry Ruback. We Urmila, myself, and my family have been in shock to know that Barry took heavenly on July 14, 2022. Barry has been part of our family for more than three decades. During his Fulbright Scholar Visiting Fellowship at Andhra University in the mid-1980s, Barry visited Allahabad. Our research interest related to studying environmental stressors brought us together, which later developed into a significant project that we continued for nearly three decades. In addition to academics, we both discovered that we are down-to-earth people. Barry always wanted to live like ordinary people during his visit to India. He would prefer to travel on a second-class railway compartment and state-owned buses. He wanted to see what was happening at the ground level and how people coped with daily life hassles. Our interest in studying environmental stressors (e.g., population density, crowding, noise, air pollution, garbage) seemed most relevant and directly connected us with ordinary people. We loved to work with people in their real-life contexts, neighborhood, slums, villages, traffic, and big religious congregations, covering other countries of South Asia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. The project was very productive, resulting in numerous excellent publications and presentations in national (in India) and international conferences. A vegetarian, Barry loved Indian food. Urmila loved to have him for dinner/lunch as she did not do any special preparation. He just loved what we ate routinely.
He learned Hindi to communicate with people and for his authentic participation in the development of questionnaires and understanding of responses of research participants. During the fieldwork, we remained available on the site to the interviewers. He loved working in villages and a big congregation. He visited my village home and had conversations with my elder brothers. and family. Our prayer is for all strength to Jasmin, Mirian, and family to bear this hour of grief and tragedy. Janak Pandey, Allahabadad, India

Catherine Hall

Planted Trees

Doug and Elaine

July 18, 2022

There are no words to express the depth of sorrow for your loss

Jeffery and Ricki Skog

July 17, 2022

We are both sorry for your loss and our thoughts are with you

Michael Hecht

July 16, 2022

Barry was a great colleague and neighbor, just a great human being. Smart, insightful, caring... Heart goes out to Jasmin and Miriam.

Sabih and guler hayek

July 16, 2022

Dear jasmin
We are so sorry to hear about Barry´s untimely passing away. Barry was such a gentle and great person. We will miss him so much. Love to you and Miriam.
If there anything we can do for you let us know.
Love
Sabih & guler hayek

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