Dr. Ruth Ann Wasson

Dr. Ruth Ann Wasson, 85, Rockford, passed away peacefully on Thursday, November 21, 2024. She was born on November 2, 1939, to Edward Flickinger Wasson and Sadie Lenhart Wasson in the bedroom of their family home in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. She earned her B.S. degree at Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, where she majored in business education and her M. Ed. degree at Pennsylvania State University. She taught business education courses in Pennsylvania and Ohio public schools before accepting a position teaching in the Division of Business at Rock Valley College in 1965, as one of the original faculty members when the college opened. She retired in 1995, after thirty years of teaching at Rock Valley College.

She was a member of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, Zeta Chapter, in Rockford where she was initiated in 1967. She served in various leadership positions including president and treasurer. She also served as Executive Secretary of the Illinois Lambda State Organization. She received state and international scholarships through Delta Kappa Gamma while completing the D. Ed. degree in business at Northern Illinois University. She was the first woman to receive a fellowship through the Foundation for Economic Education which enabled her to spend six weeks one summer at Woodward Governor Corporation.

She was also a member of P.E.O., Chapter V, in Rockford.

Her life was blessed with two older brothers, Edward Theodore (Mary Jane Conrad) Wasson and Ronald Daniel (Sandra Briel) Wasson and their families which provided the nephews and nieces in successive generations.

Travel and cultural events richly filled her life as did her service to the organizations of which she was a member.

St. Mark Lutheran Church in Rockford became her church home after she moved to Rockford. She was baptized in her hometown at St. John’s Lutheran Church and continued her worship in the Lutheran Church throughout her life.

Special thanks to the staff at Morningstar Village, Alden Debes Health Care Center and OSF Hospice for their kind and compassionate care for Ruth Ann. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Mark Lutheran Church 675 North Mulford Rd. Rockford, IL 61107 or to OSF Home Hospice 9951 Rock Cut Crossing, Loves Park, IL 61111.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 2:00 P.M. on Monday, December 9, 2024, at Fitzgerald Funeral Home and Crematory, Mulford Chapel, 1860 S. Mulford Rd. Rockford, IL. with Reverend Chad McKenna from St. Mark Lutheran Church officiating. Visitation will be held from 1:30 P.M. until 2:00 P.M. on Monday. Share online condolences at www.fitzgeraldfh.com,.