Ruth Marie Zelenak

Ruth Marie Zelenak died peacefully on November 7 in Lacey, three months after her one hundredth birthday. She was born in Yakima on August 6, 1925, the only child of Thomas and Alice Granger. After growing up in Yakima she attended Seattle University, graduating with a degree in nursing education. She taught nursing in Tacoma for decades, first at the St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing, and later in the nursing program of Tacoma Community College. Her former students often told her–both in chance encounters and at nursing school reunions– how much they had learned from her, and how greatly they appreciated the opportunity to learn from her. In retirement she spent much of her time volunteering in numerous capacities– most notably at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, and later as a television camera operator (and occasional on-camera interviewer) for the television station of Lacey’s Panorama Retirement Community, and as a volunteer at Panorama’s Convalescent and Rehabilitation Center.

After having lived in Fircrest for many decades, in 2006 she and her husband Andrew moved to Panorama, where she continued to live after Andrew’s death in 2008. She and Andrew were married for 57 years. She is survived by her son and daughter in law George and Lori Zelenak of Tumwater; by her son and daughter in law Lawrence Zelenak and Jeanne Moskal of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; by her grandchildren Kevin Zelenak, Ryan Zelenak, Megan Geib, Breanne Zelenak, and Alice Zelenak; and by great grandchildren Thomas, Oliver, and Bridget Geib. Funeral mass will be celebrated on Monday, November November 24th at 11am at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lacey, with burial at Calvary Cemetery in Tacoma. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Gentle Care Center at the Panorama Convalescent and Rehabilitation Center.