Ruth Blauw Vredeveld, 87, of Chattanooga died on May 31. Ruth was a life-long educator and master teacher. She graduated from Calvin College in 1951 with a degree in biology and began her career shortly after at Grand Rapids Christian High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She taught at Girls Preparatory School for 27 years after moving to Chattanooga. During her career she was the recipient of many honors, awards, and travel grants including distinction as the National Biology Association’s Tennessee Teacher of the Year. She is remembered by many of her students for her passion and humor in the classroom.
Experiential education and travel was an important part of her life. She participated in many language immersion programs in Mexico and South America as well as many travel programs to do field study in biology around the world. She received several Lyndhurst Teacher Awards to study biology in the Galapagos, Peru, and Kenya. In 1984 Ruth won a Fulbright teacher exchange position and taught in Glasgow, Scotland for a year. She coordinated a student exchange program between Tennessee and Venezuela through The Partners of the Americas. She brought all these experiences and her appreciation for other cultures enthusiastically back to her classroom. After retiring she continued to pursue educational travel experiences with her grandchildren.
She was an early environmental advocate and started one of the first large-scale recycling programs in Chattanooga in the early 1970s.
She was a member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and Senior Neighbors and volunteered regularly at Memorial Hospital.
She is survived by her husband of 64 years, Dr. N. Gene Vredeveld, and her sons, Walter (Martha) of Jesup, Georgia, and Roger (Sandy) of Chattanooga. She has five grandchildren: Brenna (Los Angeles), Rebecca (Washington, DC), Michael (Atlanta), Nathan (Jackson, Wyoming), and Kristen (Atlanta).
Memorial donations can be made to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 848 Ashland Terrace, or MaryEllen Locher Breast Center, 605 Glenwood Dr #100, Chattanooga, TN 37404.
The family will receive friends at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on Ashland Terrace on Saturday, June 3, from 2 to 4 pm. There will be a memorial service at St. Peter’s on Sunday, June 25, at 2 pm.
The family welcomes people to share written memories of Ruth. They can be brought to the visitation and memorial service or submitted to http://ruthvredeveld.muchloved.com
Arrangements are held by the North Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory and Florist, 5401 Highway 153, Hixson, TN 37343.
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