Ruth Dove

Early Life and Education

Ruth Dove, a devoted educator and cherished member of her family and the Macomb, Illinois

community, passed away on Monday, November 18, 2025, after a courageous seven-year

battle with a progressive illness. She relocated to the Chicago area in 2019 for specialized

medical care, where she was surrounded by love and support until her passing.

Born in Doylesburg, Pennsylvania, on April 26, 1936, to Ira Mohler Dinkle and Elizabeth

McLeyne (Summerville) Dinkle, Ruth spent her early years in several towns as her father was

a Methodist Minister-including Stewartstown and Lonaconing, Pennsylvania.

Ruth grew up with three sisters. Her mother had observed that during the depression

teachers seemed to always have jobs, so she encouraged her girls to go into the teaching

profession. Ruth was influenced by the idea of job security.

She graduated from Eastern High School in Baltimore where she was a music major. From

there she went to St. Marys Junior College in St. Mary City, Maryland. This was a town full of

early history and the school had originally been a girls finishing school; so, she learned to be

proper and the importance of early immigrants to our country, along with the college

academics. Then she attended American University in Washington, D.C., where there were

students from all over the world. At American University she earned her bachelors degree in

education with an elementary education focus. Her student teaching was done in a classroom

full of diverse nationalities with a pervasive feeling of acceptance and appreciation for all the

differences.

Through the encouragement of their church community, Ruth met her future husband, Lewis

Dove; despite initial hesitation, they fell in love and married after college, beginning a lifelong

partnership marked by mutual support and shared purpose.

Teaching Career

Her first job was in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and the students were mostly children of

government employees. There was still the culture of acceptance and appreciation of

differences. Her fifth graders responded well to her style of teaching, and she and the

students thrived that year.

Then she and her husband moved to North Carolina and Ruth found that school principals

didn't want a Northerner teaching in their schools. One school finally hired her because, the

principal told her, she was the only person available. Her first couple of months were very

uncomfortable, but when she volunteered to use her music background to organize a chorus

for a Christmas program, they decided this Northerner was acceptable.

Next, they moved to New Orleans where Ruth taught in a private school for disadvantaged

students. Some of the students had serious enough problems that they lived in group homes

on the school campus, and there was a pet spider monkey that loved to climb up a persons leg

and then sit on their shoulder. The students were challenging, and the monkey was

unnerving. While in New Orleans Ruth completed a masters degree in special education from

Louisiana State University.

Work in Illinois

When they moved to Macomb in the late sixties, Ruth taught a special education class in

junior high in Carthage. She completed a masters degree in school administration and then a

specialist degree, both from Western Illinois University (WIU). She joined the West Central

Illinois Special Education Cooperative and worked under Bob Bowen. Her duties included

consulting with schools and with parents and developing and presenting in-service training

for the five-county cooperative-27 school districts. Later she became director of the

cooperative.

Family and Personal Life

Ruth and Lew were married after Ruth graduated from American University, and they had a

son, Steve. Steve lives in Mt. Prospect, Illinois; he and his wife had two energetic children, a

15-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son. Lew taught at Tulane University before coming to

the biology department at Western Illinois University, where he taught plant physiology.

Community Involvement

Ruth served as president of Lions Club. She and Lew sang with the McDonough County

Choral Society and in their church choir. Her passion was public television (WMEC). She had

been on the board longer than any other board member and was deeply concerned about

keeping public television going; the most challenging part was meeting all the obligations

(mandated and otherwise) with government funding being cut more every year. She admired

the integrity and dedication of the people who worked with the organization and felt like the

staff and board were all part of her family. She had much to share about the good things

public television accomplished.

Ruth's life in Macomb was vibrant and full of service. She pursued her love of nature as a

Master Gardener. Known for her compassion, sociability, and deep pride in her friends and

colleagues, Ruth cared profoundly for others and treasured the many relationships she

cultivated over the years.

In Memory

A memorial service for Ruth and her late husband, Lewis Dove, is to be held at Wesley United

Methodist Church in early February, a second memorial and internment tentatively to be held

at Baldwin Memorial Methodist Church in Millersville, Maryland in May, where Ruth's father

once served as minister. Both were interred alongside family members. Ruth is survived by

her sister, Emily Sherwood; her son Steve; his wife, Cindy; and their children, Heather and

Nicholas Dove; and a large circle of extended family and friends who miss her dearly.