Ruth Duerksen

Ruth Brenneise Duerksen passed to her rest at the age of 92 on March 9, 2017. Ruth was born to Henry and Katie Brenneise in Greenway, South Dakota on March 28, 1925, and lived through the Dust Bowl, World War II, the space race, and the internet. She highly valued education, overcoming multiple challenges to receive her BA in Education from Union College in 1954 and her MS from the University of Arizona in 1975. She was never far from her beloved books! Ruth was preceded in death by her husband, Jimmie Duerksen, and is survived by her daughter Penny, son Russell, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Life Sketch

Ruth Breneisse Duerksen

Ruth Breneisse Duerksen was born in Greenway, South Dakota, on January 28, 1925. She grew up in a farming family, speaking German at home and English at school and participated in all the actions that make a farm operate. However, an early shock was losing her father to appendicitis in 1934. The Dust Bowl years were hard, but the family, with the assistance of extended family, persevered and survived.

Education was the lodestone of her life. She graduated from the eighh grade in 1938, and from Plainview Academy (high school) in 1943. She pursued her dream of college education for close to 10 years, before finally graduating with her BA in Education from Union College in 1954.

After graduation, she taught in various schools in New Mexico and Texas for the next 10 years. While teaching in New Mexico, she met Jimmie Duerksen, and they were married in 1957. After marriage, they lived in Albuquerque, NM for the next 23 years, while teaching in local schools. Penny was born in 1960 and Russell was born in 1964.

The family moved to Tucson in 1970, where Ruth would live for the next 42 years. She taught in various Tucson schools for 25 years, until she was 70, and obtained her Masters Degree in Education from the University of Arizona in 1975.

While in Tucson, she loved to observe the native wildflowers and cacti. She brought a portion of that beauty back to her yard, in her wildflower and cacti gardens. Whenever she observed a new species of penstamon, she would make a note of the location, and return later in the year to obtain seeds. At the time she left Tucson, she had seven species of penstamon growing in her garden.

After retirement, she volunteered for over 15 years at the Friends of the Library, joined TOPS, and walked 2-4 miles daily, until arthritis of the spine made her bedridden. Once her health failed, she moved to Loma Linda in 2012 to spend the last years of her life at the Loma Linda Brookdale/Emeritas. Her husband preceded her in death in 2014. She passed to her rest, awaiting the morning, on March 9, 2017.

She is survived by her daughter, Penny Duerksen-Hughes, PhD, an associate dean and scientist at Loma Linda Univeristy, by her son, Russell Duerksen, JD, an attorney in private practice, and by seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.