Joan Dawson Ruch

I met Joan when we were Freshman at UGA. We switched roommates and somehow all remained friends. Joan was unique, smart and driven. She knew exactly what she wanted to do and pursued her path with great success. She was kind, thoughtful and always put others before herself. She was bound to her faith and that must have been ver challenging in college in 1976. She never wavered. I´m so sorry that she is gone so young. I hope her family can have some peace knowing how many of us are in her debt for her kindness.

Joan was my best friend. She was like a sister to me and I loved her. We met walking the halls of the US Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Joan worked as a legislative professional for Senator Sam Nunn when he was chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee. She was admired for her keen mind, insight and ability to synthesize and communicate complex international disputes concisely for the Senator´s appearances on media such as, "Face the Nation". She loved books, reading and writing and contributed her talents to many non profit boards. Joan was always available to spend time with a friend to cheer them up with her wit and humor. She was also a person of deep faith who would pray for her family, friends and students. She was a blessing to all who knew her and an Angel who was sent to earth to make the world a better place. She prayed without ceasing for her daughters, Annie and Katie, and was so proud of the strong, resilient women they had become. She loved her godson, my son Robert, and I know she prayed for him every night. We had such wonderful times at our homes in Buck Hill Falls, PA and Manhattan and during our trip to Spain and Portugal. These are treasured memories of our families enjoying time together. Sleep well my beautiful friend, Joan Marie Dawson Ruch. The Lord needed you in Heaven to lobby for all of us still here on this earth. I hope her brother, Tom Dawson, doesn´t mind my using his line.

Joan has been helping my son, Austin for the last year and a half with language arts as he prepared for the SAT and for moving onto the next step. Her kindness and her ability to help students build confidence in their abilities are gifts she shared with many we are sure. Blessings to her family and friends as they mourn their loss.

Joan has been working with my daughter as a Language Arts tutor for the last several months helping her prepare for her HSPT test. We absolutely LOVED Joan. She helped my daughter gain confidence in what used to be a tough subject for her. Because of Joan, Morgan now loves writing and reading which has never been her strong subject before. We are devastated by this loss and knowing we won't get to see her smiling face on zoom anymore. She talked a lot about her daughters and her family that meant so much to her. We will mourn her loss and send big hugs to her family.

I met Joan in 1995 when we became neighbors and friends and she named our collective four daughters "the Marba Road Gang", and a sweet gang of buddies they were and still are. We had many a laugh watching the kids doing fun kid things like dressing up and putting on plays, selling lemonade, competing in swim meets, taking ballet and tap and going to day camps in the summer and endlessly running back and forth to each other's houses. Joan entertained and cooked beautifully with her husband and I was fortunate to have been invited to many a dinner party- I left feeling like I had spent an evening in France on most of those nights. My last get-together with Joan when she came to Annapolis in March was a lovely brunch and we laughed and reminisced and she talked about how proud she was of her girls. She was intelligent and kind and will be missed by so many of us in Annapolis.

We shared lots of laughs, good food and good times with Ms Joan, us girls hanging out and having fun...but one of my favorite times is when my husband Dan played the song Me and Mrs Jones and he took her hand and danced with her and she absolutely loved it, I´ll always remember the smiles on her face and I know the smiles were in her heart as well, I believe it had been awhile since she danced!!! I loved your momma and happy to have shared time with her, you girls are in my thoughts and prayers , I lost my momma 2 years ago, I know what you are going through , our condolences- Dan and Reka Nanez

Joan was my daughter´s substitute teacher on and off since middle school and my neighbor across the hall for 6 years. We had a group of neighbors that didn´t have family here in Tennessee so we all spent the holidays together, we´d all hang out outside listening to music and let our pups run around. We were all like family and had the best times.