Ruth Mary Bishop Velker

Mrs. Velker was born on June 8, 1919, in Canandaigua, New York, to Dora (McGuirk) and Clarence Bishop. Her family moved from Cleveland, Ohio, to Catonsville when she was 6.

She was a 1936 graduate of Catonsville High School and a 1942 graduate of Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where she earned a degree in chemistry. Upon graduation, she worked as an analytic chemist for Davison Chemical in Curtis Bay, where she met her husband Harry (d. 1976). For 60 years, she lived at 105 Park Drive in Catonsville watching two generations of neighborhood children grow up. There was little she couldn’t do when she set her mind to it; she was an expert seamstress and formidable bridge player. She loved the theater and movies, and spent many Thursday afternoons at Pattison’s auction house on Howard Street. A volunteer for Meals on Wheels for over 45 years, she retired at the age of 90. Among her happier times may have been taking three consecutive summer trips with her grandson to Russia, Italy and Greece, and Alaska.

She leaves behind dear and loyal friends, as well as her son and daughter-in-law John and Jane Velker of St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and her beloved grandson, Jake Velker, of Bungoma, Kenya.

A funeral service will be held 11:00 AM Friday, February 27, 2015, at Catonsville Presbyterian Church on Frederick Road.

"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light."